Dress Quotes

“Good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in society.”
― William Makepeace Thackeray, Sketches and Travels, Etc.

“I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.”
― Helena Bonham Carter

“A woman's dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”
― Sophia Loren

“My nails dug into his back, and he trailed his lips down the edge of my chin, down the center of my neck. He kept going until he reached the bottom of the dress’s V-neck. I let out a small gasp, and he kissed all around the neckline, just enough to tease.”
― Richelle Mead, The Indigo Spell

“Luxury is the ease of a t-shirt in a very expensive dress.”
― Karl Lagerfeld

“It occurs to me that I really can't remember your face in any precise detail. Only the way you walked away through the tables in the café, your figure, your dress, that I still see.”
― Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

“Ladies should also remember that gentlemen look more to the effect of a dress in setting off the figure and countenance of a lady than to its cost. Very few gentlemen have any idea the value of ladies' dresses. This is a subject for female criticism. Beauty of person and elegance of manners in women will always command more admiration from the opposite sex than beauty, elegance or costliness of clothing."
The Scholars' Companion and Ball Room Vade Mecum
Thomas Hillgrove, 1857”
― Thomas Hillgrove

“I've no idea when I'm going to wear it, the girl replied calmly. I only knew that I had to have it. Once I tried it on, well... She shrugged. The dress claimed me.”
― Isabel Wolff, A Vintage Affair

“Your red dress,’ she said, and laughed.

But I looked at the dress on the floor and it was as if the fire had spread across the room. It was beautiful and it reminded me of something I must do. I will remember I thought. I will remember quite soon now.”
― Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

“Take care of your costume and your confidence will take care of itself.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“It's like the old question, "Do you lock your house to keep people out, or to protect what's inside?" Should a person act modestly and dress modestly in order to prevent intrusion from the outside, undesirable things from happening, or to preserve and maintain what is inside: the delicate and sensitive ability to have and maintain an intimate relationship.”
― Manis Friedman, Doesn't Anyone Blush Anymore: Love, Marriage and the Art of Intimacy

“You cannot score a goal when you are sitting on the bench. To do so, you have to dress up and enter the game.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“Never be complacent about the current steps; don't agree and follow the status quo. Be determined that you are making an indelible impact with great change. Now, dress up and go to make it happen!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes

“I tried to avoid looking at the dress full on, lest it burn out my retinas with its glittering hideousness. ”
― Katie MacAlister, Holy Smokes

“Don't allow yourself to get into the habit of dressing carelessly when there is 'only' your husband to see you. Depend upon it he has no use for faded tea-gowns and badly dressed hair, and he abhors the sight of curling pins as much as other men do. He is a man after all, and if his wife does not take the trouble to charm him, there are plenty of other women who will.”
― Blanche Ebbutt, Don'ts for Wives

“It was strapless, the bodice peacock-blue and edged in gold, full skirted at the front and gathered into an elaborate, foaming bustle of satin and peacock feathers at the back. I insisted that every inch of bare skin was powdered with gold: my shoulders, décolletage, and the lower part of my face. The golden mask would cover my eye, and my lips were painted with more gold. I carried a golden fan that, when it was opened, revealed hundreds of eyes and looked exactly like a peacock's tail.”
― Rhiannon Hart, Blood Song

“like it or not, what we dress in is a direct reflection of who we are personally, socially, and historically.”
― Leah Wilson, The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy

“I would rather wear a suit everyday and be respected than dress half naked and be disrespected.”
― Bianca Frazier

“Charles went to kiss her shoulder.
-Leave me alone! she said, you're creasing my dress.”
― Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

“A commission of haberdashers could alone have reported what
the rest of her poor dress was made of, but it had a strong general
resemblance to seaweed, with here and there a gigantic tea-leaf.
Her shawl looked particularly like a tea-leaf after long infusion.”
― Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit

“I was to grow used to hearing, around New York, the annoying way in which people would say: 'Edward Said, such a suave and articulate and witty man,' with the unspoken suffix 'for a Palestinian.' It irritated him, too, naturally enough, but in my private opinion it strengthened him in his determination to be an ambassador or spokesman for those who lived in camps or under occupation (or both). He almost overdid the ambassadorial aspect if you ask me, being always just too faultlessly dressed and spiffily turned out. Fools often contrasted this attention to his tenue with his membership of the Palestine National Council, the then-parliament-in-exile of the people without a land. In fact, his taking part in this rather shambolic assembly was a kind of noblesse oblige: an assurance to his landsmen (and also to himself) that he had not allowed and never would allow himself to forget their plight. The downside of this noblesse was only to strike me much later on.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“I think the skin revolution for women, I will call it, really all started with Mariah Carey. Madonna was pretty risqué too, but she was pretty much always known as a "bad girl." Mariah was a good girl, supposedly Christian, turning very bad, in the late 90's. So then, all the other little girls and teens and women across America thought it would be ok for them to "come out" too essentially, or flaunt whatever they had. Modesty went completely out the window for many women, starting in the late 90's.”
― Lisa Bedrick, On Christian Hot Topics

“The magicked dress danced over to the princess. Despite her misgivings, she stood up to receive it- it would have been rude not to. The dress easily smoothed itself over her. Dark green velvet skirts, full and soft, twirled around down to her ankles. Golden buttons fastened themselves up the placket on the bodice and over the elegant, tight sleeves. From her elbows, wisps of dark green mist flowed to the ground for tippets. A collar around her neck drifted out into a cape of the same material.
"Truly, you are the most beautiful princess in the world," a fairy breathed.
Aurora Rose looked at herself in the mirror of dewdrops. She was indeed the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Long neck, golden hair, wide violet eyes, narrow waist, lips perfectly pink and rosy.
She turned, just a little bit, to see how her figure looked from a different angle. The green velvet flowed softly and majestically, making delicious little noises when its folds rippled. As talented as the castle seamstresses were, the princess had never worn anything as elegant or perfect as this.”
― Liz Braswell, Once Upon a Dream

“Early in my career, observation of those around showed that there was a distinct set of behaviours that got people promoted.
If there were two people of equal ability, for example, and one dressed, thought and behaved as if they had already been promoted, they would be the one who got the next available job at that next level.”
― Richard Templar, Templar: Rules of Life 5e

“Ye wha are fain to hae your name
Wrote in the bonny book o fame,
Let merit nae pretension claim
To laurel'd wreath,
But hap ye weel, baith back and wame,
In guid Braid Claith.”
― Robert Fergusson, Poems of Fergusson

“And the evening dress protocol? Shoulders exposed, plunging neckline, all my wealth in my hair, around my neck, on fingers and wrists? I expect that’s how they dress in high society?”
― Byrd Nash, Ghost Talker

“The best-dressed person is the one you dress.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“I make my way back over to the refreshments table, and with shaky hands, I lift the punch bowl in the air. My eyes squeeze shut as I pour its contents over my dress, staining it red like Carrie White's or Jennifer Check's on prom night. Gasps break out at the sound of the splash. Punch seeps into the pale pink fabric, darkening the chiffon roses. The spill feathers out in fissures, bleeding out like blooming tie-dye.
"Lila!" Roisin cries.
Amelia throws her head back, laughing. "Wow! A plot twist. The outsider is also a freak."
I lower the bowl, steadying my breath. One stain is considered an imperfection. An entire spill is artwork. Persephone didn't become less lovely just because she was dragged to Hell. Carrie was still prom queen. And Jennifer... well, Jennifer was still Megan Fox. The point is, it's not about the dress we wear. It's about how we carry ourselves in it.”
― Kiana Krystle, Dance of the Starlit Sea

“Her dress blooms around her like a jellyfish moving through water as she twirls around the room. The iridescent pink underlay catches the light beneath layers of pale peach tulle. Delicate magenta flowers cascade from her left shoulder, falling across the bodice.”
― Kiana Krystle, Dance of the Starlit Sea

“I wanted to stroll around town, wrapped in loose, warm cloth.”
― Yōko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth