| Last modified 18 Mar 2007 |
On Dress
Hardy Amies
Great style is insouciance - it is very vulgar to be impressed by your own clothes.
A man should look as if he had bought his clothes with intelligence,
put them on with care, and then forgotten all about them.
Umberto Angeloni
The most challenging part to dressing well is knowing how to be elegant while being casual.
Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly
Eccentricity is the rebellion of the individual against the
established order, sometimes against nature itself, and that way madness lies.
Dandyism, on the other hand, plays games with the rules while continuing to respect them.
Honoré de Balzac
In order to be fashionable, one must enjoy rest without having experienced work...
Like steam engines, men regimented by work all look alike... The man instrument is a social zero.
Bryan 'Beau' Brummell
If John Bull turns round to look after you, you are not well dressed;
but either too stiff, too tight, or too fashionable.
Bulwer-Lytton
Never in your dress altogether desert that taste which is general.
The world considers eccentricity in great things genius, in small things folly.
The most graceful principle of dress is neatness, the most vulgar is preciseness.
Lord Chesterfield
Take great care always to be dressed like the reasonable people of your own
age, in the place where you are; whose dress is never spoken of one way or
another as either to negligent or too much studied.
Dr A. Debray
In elegant world, an irreproachable tie knot is an essential part of one's
toilette; it does not matter whether the knot is simple or complicated,
because the art is what counts. There are some knots which seem casual in
appearance, but which have taken considerable labour before the mirror,
and many a stamped foot, many an exclamation of impatience.
En attendant VXZ 375
It'll be a man's world. That's the fashion.
Epictetus
Know first who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
He knew that to be careless in dress and manner required more confidence than to be careful.
Errol Flynn
My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.
E. M. Forster
All men are equal. All men, that is, who possess umbrellas.
George Frazier
Women should never be allowed to counsel men about clothes.
Paris Hilton
The only rule is don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go.
Anne Hollander
I have come to believe that male dress was always essentially more advanced
than female throughout fashion history, and tended to lead the way, to set the standard.
Franz Kafka
I merely try casually in a hit-or-miss way to dress well.
Kotzebue
Everything a man of fashion puts on his body must be broken in, nothing should appear new.
August Luchet
Last briefly and change often, appear rather than be---that is what suffices.
George Meredith
Cynicism is intellectual dandyism.
Lord Tennyson
What profits now to understand
The merits of a spotless shirt
A dapper boot
A little hand
If half the little soul is dirt?
Jan Tschichold
Today, good taste is often erroneously rejected as old-fashioned because the
ordinary man, seeking approval of his so-called personality, prefers to follow
the dictates of his own peculiar style rather than submit to any objective criterion of taste.
Gore Vidal
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.
Oscar Wilde
A well tied tie is the first serious step in life.
P. G. Woodhouse
Jeeves: Very good, sir. Pardon me, your tie.
Wooster: What's wrong with it?
Jeeves: Everything, sir. If you will allow me.
Wooster: All right, go ahead. But I can't help asking myself if ties really matter at a time like this.
Jeeves: There is no time when ties do not matter, sir.