Famous fashion quotes that will teach, inspire, make you think - maybe even laugh

Famous fashion quotes that will teach, inspire, make you think - maybe even laugh

Fashion is much more than pretty clothes on a model. Legendary designers, celebrities, and fashion lovers use it as an expression of art and culture. Below are a collection of thoughtful, instructive, inspirational, and sometimes funny fashion quotes that demonstrate that fashion can be illustrative of culture, time, and transformations.

Fashion quotes about Fashion's impact

“Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.” —Diana Vreeland

“Fashion is not necessarily about labels. It’s not about brands. It’s about something else that comes from within you.” – Ralph Lauren

“Fashion is part of the daily air, and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.” – Diana Vreeland

"Fashion is all about context—societal, cultural, historic, economic, and political." - Tim Gunn

Fashion as art fashion quotes

“Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.” – Sir Francis Bacon

"The hardest thing in fashion is not to be known for a logo, but to be known for a silhouette." —Giambattista Valli

“What’s becoming very obvious to me is that fashion is art.” – Lupita Nyong’o

"I think there is beauty in everything. What 'normal' people perceive as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it."—Alexander McQueen

"Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself." —Oscar de la Renta

“The joy of dressing is an art.” – John Galliano

"Fashions fade, style is eternal." —Yves Saint Laurent

"Fashion you can buy, but style you possess. The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years. There's no how-to road map to style. It's about self expression and, above all, attitude." —Iris Apfel

"Clothes are self-expression. If you have a limited range of outfits—say, only capri pants and T-shirts—it’s as though you have a limited range of words in your vocabulary." - Tim Gunn

"Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak." —Rachel Zoe

“Clothes are like a good meal, a good movie, great pieces of music.” – Michael Kors

"Style is the only thing you can’t buy. It’s not in a shopping bag, a label, or a price tag. It’s something reflected from our soul to the outside world—an emotion.”—Alber Elbaz

“Style; all who have it have one thing: originality.” – Diana Vreeland

"What’s my style is not your style, and I don’t see how you can define it. It’s something that expresses who you are in your own way.” —Iris Apfel

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. – Coco Chanel

“Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn.” – Orson Welles

“Real style is never right or wrong. It’s a matter of being yourself on purpose.” – G. Bruce Boyer

“Fashion changes, but style endures.” – Coco Chanel

“When a woman says, ‘I have nothing to wear!’, what she really means is, ‘There’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today.’”– Caitlin Moran

"Style is something each of us already has, all we need to do is find it." —Diane von Furstenberg

"I always find beauty in things that are odd and imperfect, they are much more interesting." —Marc Jacobs

“I don’t believe in fashion. I believe in costume. Life is too short to be the same person every day.” – Stephanie Perkins

“A woman is never sexier than when she is comfortable in her clothes.” – Vera Wang

"Be sure what you want and be sure about yourself. Fashion is not just beauty, it's about good attitude. You have to believe in yourself and be strong." - Adriana Lima

Thoughtful fashion quotes

"Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them." —Marc Jacobs

“Fashion should be a form of escapism and not a form of imprisonment.” – Alexander McQueen

“Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.” – Jean Cocteau “You either know fashion or you don’t.” – Anna Wintour

"Fashion is what you're offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose." —Lauren Hutton

“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.” – Coco Chanel

“When you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else.” – Iris Apfel

“Fashion is all about happiness. It’s fun. It’s important. But it’s not medicine.” – Donatella Versace

"Personally, I’m fascinated by how something like the T-shirt can go from being an undergarment that no one would ever think of wearing outside to being the staple in everyone’s daily wardrobe." - Tim Gunn

"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." —Coco Chanel

"We must never confuse elegance with snobbery." —Yves Saint Laurent

"Elegance is not standing out, but being remembered." —Giorgio Armani

"Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who's wearing it." —Yves Saint Laurent

“It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic by fashion.” – Yves Saint Laurent

Good fashion advice quotes

“Buy less, choose well.” – Vivienne Westwood

"Don't be into trends. Don't make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live." —Gianni Versace

”What you wear is such an expression of who you are. That’s like someone picking out who I’m going to date!” – Diane Kruger, on not working with a stylist

“Fashion has to reflect who you are, what you feel at the moment and where you’re going.” – Pharrell Williams

“Always dress like you’re going to see your worst enemy.” – Kimora Lee

"What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language." —Miuccia Prada

"People will stare. Make it worth their while." —Harry Winston

"Fashion is like eating, you shouldn't stick to the same menu." —Kenzo Takada

“Conformity is the only real fashion crime. To not dress like yourself and to sublimate your spirit to some kind of group identity is succumbing to fashion fascism.” – Simon Doonan

“Too much good taste can be very boring. Independent style, on the other hand, can be very inspiring.” – Diana Vreeland

Fashion humor

“I like Cinderella; she has a good work ethic, and she likes shoes.” – Amy Adams

“Playing dress-up begins at age five and never really ends.” – Kate Spade

“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.” – Marilyn Monroe

"The best things in life are free. The second best are very expensive." —Coco Chanel

“I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.” – Diana Vreeland

“I’m just trying to change the world, one sequin at a time.” – Lady Gaga

"I like my money right where I can see it…hanging in my closet." —Carrie Bradshaw

“When you don’t feel to dress means that you are depressed. You need a fashion shower.” – Anna Dello Russo

"You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it." —Edith Head

“I feel that flip-flops are the downfall of many relationships. It’s like, first it’s the flip-flops, and then it’s the sweatpants… it’s the gateway drug to no sex.” – Lady Gaga

"Girls do not dress for boys. They dress for themselves, and of course, each other. If girls dressed for boys, they’d just walk around naked at all times.” —Betsey Johnson

"I firmly believe that with the right footwear one can rule the world." —Bette Midler

“Women who wear black lead colorful lives.” – Neiman Marcus

“I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color.” – Wednesday Addams

“I think that because I’m overweight, my fantasy was lightness. So I project my fantasy to the clothes, and now all I do is light, light clothes because it’s the one thing I don’t have. That is why I’m too afraid to lose weight because then I might make heavy clothes.” – Alber Elbaz

“My mother was right: When you’ve got nothing left, all you can do is get into silk underwear and start reading Proust.” – Jane Birkin

"Whoever said that money can't buy happiness, simply didn't know where to go shopping." —Bo Derek

Fashion quotes about Fashion's importance

"You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody.” —Diana Vreeland

"Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well.” —Vivienne Westwood

“I can’t concentrate in flats.” – Victoria Beckham

“Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life.” – Bill Cunningham

“Style is very personal. It has nothing to do with fashion. Fashion is over quickly. Style is forever.” – Ralph Lauren

“Fashion wasn’t what you wore someplace anymore; it was the whole reason for going.” – Andy Warhol

“When I first moved to New York, and I was totally broke, sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner. I felt it fed me more.” – Carrie Bradshaw

Fashion designer influence and insight quotes

“The customer is the final filter. What survives the whole process is what people wear. I’m not interested in making clothes that end up in some dusty museum.” – Marc Jacobs

“If I can have any impact, I want women to feel good about themselves and have fun with fashion.” – Michelle Obama

"I don't design clothes. I design dreams." —Ralph Lauren

"I want people to see the dress, but focus on the woman." —Vera Wang

"Ironically, Americans’ disdain for corseting has paralleled an increase in our girth. We as a nation are in a vicious cycle of wearing looser and looser clothes because we are less and less comfortable in our bodies," - Tim Gunn

"I make clothes, women make fashion." —Azzedine Alaïa

"I don't do fashion. I am fashion." —Coco Chanel

“I’m a very down-to-earth person, but it is my job to make that earth more pleasant.” – Karl Lagerfeld

“I have always believed that fashion was not only to make women more beautiful, but also to reassure them, give them confidence.” – Yves Saint Laurent

"Being well dressed hasn’t much to do with having good clothes. It’s a question of good balance and good common sense.” —Oscar de la Renta

"A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste—it's hearty, it's healthy, it's physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I'm against." —Diana Vreeland

"Fashion innovations vanish quickly if they aren’t sustainable—some garments return, some die out completely, and some never seem to leave at all." - Tim Gunn

Fashion quotes about Fashion pieces

"You can never take too much care over the choice of your shoes. Too many women think that they are unimportant, but the real proof of an elegant woman is what is on her feet." —Christian Dior

“Shoes transform your body language and attitude. They lift you physically and emotionally.” – Christian Louboutin

“A great dress can make you remember what is beautiful about life.” – Rachel Roy

“The dress must follow the body of a woman, not the body following the shape of the dress.” – Hubert de Givenchy

"When in doubt, wear red." —Bill Blass

“I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it.”– Elizabeth Taylor

“I’ve always thought of accessories as the exclamation point of a woman’s outfit.” – Michael Kors

"How can you live the high life if you do not wear the high heels?" —Sonia Rykiel

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