Granted, reading FashionBeans probably equips you with more than enough style knowledge to pass an end-of-season exam. But if you’re the sartorial sage in your peer group, setting the agenda and the dress code for everything from a business-casual office to a few days in Ibiza, then you could quickly run low on modish pearls of wisdom.
In which case, breathe a sweet sigh of relief, as we’re here to provide you with a rundown of our favourite quotes about fashion and style — all of which you can pass off as your own musings after a few beers down your local.
1. “Shoes transform your body language and attitude. They lift you physically and emotionally.” — Christian Louboutin
2. “Remind yourself. Nobody built like you, you design yourself.” — Jay Z
3. “Fashion is what you adopt when you don’t know who you are.” — Quentin Crisp
4. “To achieve the nonchalance, which is absolutely necessary for a man, one article at least must not match.” — Hardy Amies
5. “Being perfectly well-dressed gives one a tranquillity that no religion can bestow.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
6. “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 Brummel
7. “If you’re asking someone for money wear a tie.” — Unknown
8. “People always ask me what the trends are, but I’m not a believer in trends. Individuality is more important to me, to stand out and have the confidence to wear something you’re comfortable in – it just happens. I’m comfortable wearing a suit.” — David Gandy
9. “Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.” — Lauren Hutton
10. “Fashion is a playground up until a certain age. But then you have to find your own signature and your own style.” — Nicolas Ghesquière
11. “Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.” — Marc Jacobs
12. “Fashion is more about feel than science.” — Pharrell Williams
13. “As you age, it’s quite important to pay attention to how you look and to take steps towards ensuring that you stay happy with how you look. And grooming, whether you just use a moisturiser or go the whole hog at a salon, can make that much-needed difference.” — Saif Ali Khan
14. “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” — Orson Welles
15. “Fashions fade, style is eternal.” — Yves Saint Laurent
16. “Every man should have a magnifying mirror. If you look good magnified, you are set to go” — Tom Ford
17. “People will stare. Make it worth their while.” — Harry Winston
18. “Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness, simply didn’t know where to go shopping.” — Bo Derek
19. “We define a metrosexual as someone who really takes care of themselves in terms of grooming and style. There is nothing wrong with that. But I think you need to have some other values. It’s cool to incorporate some traditional values into metrosexuality. Then it becomes a good lifestyle.” — Frank Vincent
20. “To be noticed without striving to be noticed, this is what elegance is about.” — Luciano Barbera
21. “I like nice clothes, whether they’re dodgy or not.” — David Beckham
22. “Create your own visual style… Let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” — Orson Welles
23. “The well-dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice.” — William Somerset Maugham
24. “Make it simple, but significant.” — Don Draper
25. “The difference between style and fashion is quality.” — Giorgio Armani
26. “Dirt makes a man look masculine. Let your hair blow in the wind… All you have to do is look neat when you have to look neat.” — Hedy Lamarr
27. “Music has shaped men’s fashion and transposed in a playful and witty manner its riding or military heritage. It is difficult to figure out who leads but music and fashion are connected genetically.” — Hedi Slimane
28. “If you can’t be better than your competition, just dress better.” — Anna Wintour
29. “Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.” — Alexander McQueen
30. “Elegance is not standing out, but being remembered.” — Giorgio Armani
31. “I often take a brand new suit or hat and throw it up against the wall a few times to get that stiff, square newness out of it.” — Fred Astaire
32. “People say, ‘What do you mean you want to help the world, but you’re so concerned about fashion?’ It’s illegal to be naked. It is something that is extremely important.” — Kanye West
33. “Putting on a beautifully designed suit elevates my spirit, extols my sense of self, and helps define me as a man to whom details matter.” — Gay Talese
34. “You don’t find a style. A style finds you.” — Keith Richards
35. “My style – it’s black and it’s expensive.” — Mark Healey
36. “Dress like you’ve made something of yourself in the world, even if you haven’t.” — Unknown
37. “Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he’s got it all.” — James Brown
38. “A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.” — George Bernard Shaw
39. “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 you live.” — Gianni Versace
40. “Looking good isn’t self-importance; it’s self-respect.” — Charles Hix
41. “Anyone can get dressed up and glamorous, but it is how people dress in their days off that are the most intriguing.” — Alexander Wang
42. “I think in black.” — Gareth Pugh
43. “Anyone can be confident with a full head of hair. But a confident bald man — there’s your diamond in the rough.” — Larry David
44. “There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
45. “A man should look as if he has bought his clothes with intelligence, put them on with care and then forgotten all about them.” — Hardy Amies
46. “Men with style are great because they have a sense of self.” — Lexa Doig
47. “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” — Mark Twain
48. “All it takes are a few simple outfits. And there’s one secret — the simpler the better.” — Cary Grant
49. “Style is primarily a matter of instinct.” — Bill Blass
50. “I can go all over the world with just three outfits: a blue blazer and grey flannel pants, a grey flannel suit, and black tie.” — Pierre Cardin
51. “‘Tis hell to a man of spirit to be contradicted by his tailor.” — Richard Garnett
52. “Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.” — Henry David Thoreau
53. “Style is the answer to everything. A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing. To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without it. To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art.” — Charles Bukowski
54. “A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life.” — Oscar Wilde
55. “The style of studied nonchalance is the psychological triumph of grace over order.” — G. Bruce Boyer
56. “Some of the worst mistakes in my life were haircuts.” — Jim Morrison
57. “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” — Oscar Wilde
58. “Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.” — Arthur Ashe
59. “I don’t design clothes. I design dreams.” — Ralph Lauren
60. “Fashion is an art. You express who you are through what you’re wearing.” — Daniele Donato
61. “Style is when they’re running you out of town and you make it look like you’re leading the parade.” — William Battie
62. “Your signature scent should be nothing too overpowering, something that suits the occasion.” — David Beckham
63. “Never wear anything that panics the cat.” — P.J. O’Rourke
64. “Good grooming is integral and impeccable style is a must. If you don’t look the part, no one will want to give you time or money.” — Daymond John
65. “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” — Rachel Zoe
66. “Fashion is not necessarily about labels. It’s not about brands. It’s about something else that comes from within you.” — Ralph Lauren
67. “A well-tailored suit is to women what lingerie is to men.” — Unknown
68. “It is both delusional and stupid to think that clothes don’t really matter and we should all wear whatever we want. Most people don’t take clothing seriously enough, but whether we should or not, clothes do talk to us and we make decisions based on people’s appearances.” — G. Bruce Boyer
69. “A good lather is half the shave.” — William Hone
70. “Buy less, choose well.” — Vivienne Westwood
71. “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” — Oscar Wilde
72. “Going to an actual barbershop, the whole hot towel old-school experience. You sit there and get your hands massaged while getting a shave? Nothing wrong with that.” — Justin Timberlake
73. “Style is the perfection of a point of view.” — Richard Eberhart
74. “Fashion is what you buy. Style is what you do with it.” — Unknown
75. “The way we dress affects the way we think, the way we feel, the way we act, and the way others react to us.” — Julie Rasband
76. “Dressing well is a form of good manners.” — Tom Ford
77. “To me, clothing is a form of self-expression — there are hints about who you are in what you wear.” — Marc Jacobs
78. “Know first who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.” — Epictetus
79. “Like every good man, I strive for perfection, and, like every ordinary man, I have found that perfection is out of reach — but not the perfect suit.” — Edward Tivnan
80. “Almost every man looks more so in a belted trench coat.” — Sydney J. Harris
81. “Men tell me that I’ve saved their marriages. It costs them a fortune in shoes, but it’s cheaper than a divorce.” — Manolo Blahnik
82. “Even on the most solemn occasions I got away without wearing socks and hid that lack of civilisation in high boots.” — Albert Einstein
83. “The best things you can do for your skin are not smoke, always use sunscreen and drink a lot of water.” — Sela Ward
84. “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy — but mysterious. But above all black says this: ‘I don’t bother you — don’t bother me.’” — Yohji Yamamoto
85. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci
