16 Quotes by James Laver

The erogenous zone is always shifting, and it is the business of fashion to pursue it, without ever catching it up.

Clothes are never a frivolity: they always mean something, and that something is to a large extent outside the control of our conscious minds.

The same costume will be Indecent ten years before its time, Shameless five years before its time, Outre (daring) one year before its time, Smart (in its own time), Dowdy one year after its time, Ridiculous twenty years after its time, Amusing thirty years after its time, Quaint fifty years after its time, Charming seventy years after its time, Romantic one-hundred years after its time, Beautiful one-hundred-and-fifty years after its time.

When seen in retrospect, fashions seem to express their era. Although it is more difficult to draw conclusions from contemporary clothes, the same principles which hold for the clothes of the past must hold for clothes of the present and the future.

Clothes are inevitable. They are nothing less than the furniture of the mind made visible.

Ten years before its time, a fashion is indecent; ten years after, it is hideous; but a century after, it is romantic.

Clothes are never a frivolity: they always mean something.