The Little Dictionary of Fashion

The Little Dictionary of Fashion was first published in the 1950s and was written by the famous French fashion designer Christian Dior. Dior is the founder of the world renowned fashion house of the same name. This book contains 126 pages of advice for designers and women looking to improve their wardrobe. The book is tiny, alphabetized, and filled with photos and drawings of Dior’s designs. To encourage you to read the book in full, I’ve written down some of my favorite quotes.

Except in the hands of an expert two colors in one outfit is enough . . . And two touches of any one color are enough.

You can wear black at any time. You can wear it at any age. You may wear it for almost any occasion. A “little black frock” is essential to a woman’s wardrobe.

If you have a particularly outstanding feature it is always a good thing to emphasize it. In fact the whole of fashion is emphasis—emphasis on woman’s loveliness.

Until the time we are converted into robots—and I hope this time will never come—individuality will be always one of the conditions of real elegance . . . No elegant woman follows fashion slavishly.

You can never take too much care of the materials you choose to make a dress, and it is one of the greatest difficulties of the couturier to find the right material to express his ideas.

Good fashion is always natural evolution and based on common sense. I dislike trick fashions—designed only for publicity’s sake. They may be eye-catching but they are never elegant.

Nothing gives the impression of good grooming and being well dressed more quickly than spotless white.

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Although the scarf you wear may be one of thousands it can still be exclusive in the way you wear it! An exclusiveness is not a question of money.

There is no fashion which is good without care, enthusiasm and zest behind it. Zest in designing, zest in making, and zest in wearing your clothes.

If you have any interest in reading The Little Dictionary of Fashion, it can be found on Abrams Books, Illume Books, Rizzoli Bookstore, and AbeBooks (where you can buy used copies for cheap).