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

- James Laver

When seen in retrospect, fashions seem to express their era. Although it is more difficult to draw conclusions from contemporary clothes, the same pr…

- James Laver

Every style seems completely appropriate to its epoch. We cannot imagine Madame de Pompadour, or the Empress Josephine, or the early Victorian lady i…

- James Laver

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

- James Laver

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

- James Laver

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…

- James Laver

Clothes are never a frivolity: they always mean something.

- James Laver

Nothing is more revealing of an age than its hypocrisies.

- James Laver

If we could understand the full significance of a woman's hat we could prophesy her clothes for the next year, the interior decoration of the next tw…

- James Laver