Sage Wisdom From Stylish Folk
I’m off to Portland this morning for a few days (which I’ll write more about next week), so I’m spending less time in front of my computer and more time exploring the world.
In the meantime, here are 25 quotes about style - in clothing and the broader sense - that hit home for me and are worth a ponder.
“Women make passes at men who wear glasses.” - G. Bruce Boyer
“All it takes are a few simple outfits. And there’s one secret - the simpler the better.” - Cary Grant
“If you’ve got funk, you’ve got style.” - George Clinton
“Men in shorts are disgusting.” - Fran Lebovitz
“Dress up your sportswear and dress down your formalwear.” - Luciano Barbera
“Fashion is industry; style is culture.” - Glenn O’Brien
In the words of Miles Davis, dress like you’re “Cleaner than a broke dick dog.”
“Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” - Orson Welles
“You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” - Oscar Wilde
“Fashion you can buy, but style you possess.” - Iris Apfel
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” - Mark Twain
“If people turn to look at you on the street, you are not well dressed, but either too stiff, too tight, or too fashionable.” - Beau Brummell
“A good plain look is my favorite look.” - Andy Warhol
“Don't overbuy. When you contemplate an article, judge whether or not it harmonizes with items you already own … It's best to be inconspicuous. But inconspicuous does not mean dull.” - Cary Grant
“Style is very personal. It has nothing to do with fashion. Fashion is over quickly. Style is forever.” - Ralph Lauren
“Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well dressed. There ain’t much credit in that.” - Charles Dickens
Backing up Dickens, without intending to: “And when we go crashing down, we come back every time. ‘Cause we never go out of style.” - Taylor Swift
Backing up Swift without intending to: “I don’t say we ought to all misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.” - Orson Welles
Though Trane’s classic quote is about music, it also applies to style and getting it perfectly wrong, rather than chasing the ideals of fashion: “After all the investigation, all of the technique - doesn’t matter! Only if the feeling is right.” - John Coltrane
“Dressing well is a form of good manners.” - Tom Ford
“Style as a concept has been hijacked to mean elite, refined and expensive when it should be thought of as a basic expression of life in much the same way as we all identify with music or speech.” - Scott Schuman
“...most people who appreciate the finer things will notice your fine shoes, even if you are wearing 501 jeans and a Hanes white T-shirt. And they will think, Here is a man with his priorities straight.” - Glenn O’Brien
“When somebody tells you you’re overdressed, remember, if done correctly, it merely means you’re the best-dressed man in the room.” - David Coggins
“Isn’t elegance forgetting what one is wearing?” - Yves Saint Laurent
“The difference between style and fashion is quality.” - Giorgio Armani