81 Inspirational Style Quotes

In a world where personal style speaks volumes, a touch of inspiration goes a long way. Whether you're revamping your wardrobe, seeking a fresh outlook on fashion, or simply wishing to express yourself more fully through your attire, the right words can spark creativity and confidence. We've meticulously gathered 81 of the most inspiring style quotes that capture the essence of individuality, elegance, and boldness. These powerful words from icons in the fashion industry and beyond are sure to invigorate your sense of style, encouraging you to embrace your uniqueness and carry it with flair. Dive into this treasure trove of inspiration and let each quote be a stepping stone to discovering and refining your personal style journey.

1. “On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.” - Thomas Jefferson

2. “Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” - Gore Vidal

4. “Fashions fade, style is eternal.” - Yves Saint Laurent

5. “You can have whatever you want if you dress for it. ” - Edith Head

6. “You know, Minister, I disagree with Dumbledore on many counts...but you cannot deny he's got style...” - J.K. Rowling

7. “True friends are like diamonds – bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style.” - Nicole Richie

8. “There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.” - Sir Joshua Reynolds

9. “That's why I've just gone on … collecting this particular kind of stuff – what you might call riff-raff. There's not a book here, Lawford, that hasn't at least a glimmer of the real thing in it – just Life, seen through a living eye, and felt. As for literature, and style, and all that gallimaufry, don't fear for them if your author has the ghost of a hint of genius in his making.” - Walter de la Mare

10. “Kitsch is the inability to admit that shit exists” - Milan Kundera

11. “Why change? Everyone has his own style. When you have found it, you should stick to it.” - Audrey Hepburn

12. “Forget about style; worry about results. ” - Bobby Orr

13. “To achieve style, begin by affecting none.” - E.B. White

14. “I set about seeking a thread, a theme, a style, in the realm of legend. Something that might allow me to give free rein to my juvenile sense of romanticism and the beautiful image.” - Leni Riefenstahl

15. “Fashion changes, but style endures.” - Coco Chanel

16. “If this is your idea of glamour, I'm having second thoughts about letting you make me over.” - Cassandra Clare

17. “I am a fashion person, and fashion is not only about clothes -- it's about all kinds of change” - Karl Lagerfeld

18. “When a woman smiles,then her dress should smile to” - Madeleine Vionnet

19. “Fashion is neither moral or immoral, but it is for rebuilding the morale.” - Karl Lagerfeld

20. “If you stick to something doggedly, you are off to a bad start.” - Karl Lagerfeld

21. “One is never over-dressed or underdressed with a Little Black Dress.” - Karl Lagerfeld

22. “I want everyone to wear what they want and mix it in their own way. That, to me, is what is modern.” - Karl Lagerfeld

23. “Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.” - Karl Lagerfeld

24. “The woman is the most perfect doll that i have dressed with delight and admiration.” - Karl Lagerfeld

25. “My bottom is my deliquent daughter. I lavish praise upon her cheeks when she's well behaved and when she gets out of control, I pretend she isn't mine.” - Anna Johnson

26. “Style is the answer to everything.A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thingTo do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without itTo do a dangerous thing with style is what I call artBullfighting can be an artBoxing can be an artLoving can be an artOpening a can of sardines can be an artNot many have styleNot many can keep styleI have seen dogs with more style than men,although not many dogs have style.Cats have it with abundance.When Hemingway put his brains to the wall with a shotgun,that was style.Or sometimes people give you styleJoan of Arc had styleJohn the BaptistJesusSocratesCaesarGarcía Lorca.I have met men in jail with style.I have met more men in jail with style than men out of jail.Style is the difference, a way of doing, a way of being done.Six herons standing quietly in a pool of water,or you, naked, walking out of the bathroom without seeing me.” - Charles Bukowski

27. “These men seem not to know that poetry has its particular rules and precepts; and that history is governed by others directly opposite.” - Lucian of Samosata

28. “The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in.” - Henry Green

29. “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

30. “Whatever does not pretend at all has style enough.” - Booth Tarkington

31. “One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” - Oscar Wilde

32. “Accentuated plainness and accentuated vice ought to bring about harmony. Beauty lies in harmony, in style, whether it be the harmony of ugliness or beauty, vice or virtue.” - Yevgeny Zamyatin

33. “If all you can do is a bad thing, well at least do it with your style!” - Toba Beta

34. “All my stories are webs of style and none seems at first blush to contain much kinetic matter. For me style is matter. ” - Vladimir Nabokov

35. “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn” - Orson Welles

36. “I'm the first to admit that I don't write right. Now, relax and enjoy the show! The sideshow, that is.” - Lori R. Lopez

37. “Fashion is only different skins for different flavours of you.” - Lauren Beukes

38. “Never use the word “cheap”. Today everybody can look chic in inexpensive clothes (the rich buy them too). There is good clothing design on every level today. You can be the chicest thing in the world in a T-shirt and jeans — it’s up to you.” - Karl Lagerfeld

39. “Buy what you don’t have yet, or what you really want, which can be mixed with what you already own. Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping.” - Karl Lagerfeld

40. “Reinvent new combinations of what you already own. Improvise. Become more creative. Not because you have to, but because you want to. Evolution is the secret for the next step.” - Karl Lagerfeld

41. “The elegance is as physical, as moral quality that has nothing common with the clothing. You can see a countrywoman more elegant than one so called elegant woman.” - Karl Lagerfeld

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

43. “[...] with the protecting sky in all its splendour and the golden sun blazing forth against a backdrop of crystalline blue, to use the inspired words of a television reporter[...].” - José Saramago

44. “Above all things -- read. Read the great stylists who cannot be copied rather than the successful writers who must not be copied.” - Ngaio Marsh

45. “Create your own style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” - Anna Wintour

46. “In the philosophical dialect, a cynic takes an insult as a compliment since opposition is already his style.” - Criss Jami

47. “First rule of cleavage: it's not how low you go, but where and when you show.” - Elisabeth Dale

48. “It is unlikely that many of us will be famous, or even remembered. But not less important than the brilliant few that lead a nation or a literature to fresh achievements, are the unknown many whose patient efforts keep the world from running backward; who guard and maintain the ancient values, even if they do not conquer new; whose inconspicuous triumph it is to pass on what they inherited from their fathers, unimpaired and undiminished, to their sons. Enough, for almost all of us, if we can hand on the torch, and not let it down; content to win the affection, if it may be, of a few who know us and to be forgotten when they in their turn have vanished. The destiny of mankind is not governed wholly by its 'stars'.” - F. L. Lucas

49. “One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.” - Stephen King

50. “Behind the perfection of a man's style, must lie the passion of a man's soul.” - Oscar Wilde

51. “The most special times in a person's life are not meant to last forever. They're like bubbles rising from a plastic ring dipped into a soapy solution. The soap bubbles rise, with the sun flashing brilliant colors, then bursts into a showery memory mist.” - Julius Thompson

52. “Mum said earlier what a lovely dress you’re wearing.”Beryl’s eyebrows wriggled like two tiny tapeworms. “This?” she said. “But I’ve had this for years.”It was a beige dress that would have looked better on an eighty year-old. Any eighty-year-old, man or woman.“I think you’ve really grown into it,” Valkyrie said.“I always thought it was a little shapeless.”Valkyrie resisted the urge to say that was what she meant.” - Derek Landy

53. “It's not very easy to grow up into a woman. We are always taught, almost bombarded, with ideals of what we should be at every age in our lives: "This is what you should wear at age twenty", "That is what you must act like at age twenty-five", "This is what you should be doing when you are seventeen." But amidst all the many voices that bark all these orders and set all of these ideals for girls today, there lacks the voice of assurance. There is no comfort and assurance. I want to be able to say, that there are four things admirable for a woman to be, at any age! Whether you are four or forty-four or nineteen! It's always wonderful to be elegant, it's always fashionable to have grace, it's always glamorous to be brave, and it's always important to own a delectable perfume! Yes, wearing a beautiful fragrance is in style at any age!” - C. JoyBell C.

54. “I can't over-emphasize how important an exquisite perfume is, to be wrapped and cradled in an enchanting scent upon your skin is a magic all on its own! The notes in that precious liquid will remind you that you love yourself and will tell other people that they ought to love you because you know that you're worth it. The love affair created by a good perfume between you and other people, you and nature, you and yourself, you and your memories and anticipations and hopes and dreams; it is all too beautiful a thing!” - C. JoyBell C.

55. “Women waste so much time wearing no perfume. As for me, in every step that I have taken in life, I have been accompanied by an exquisite perfume!” - C. JoyBell C.

56. “Elegance is a glowing inner peace. Grace is an ability to give as well as to receive and be thankful. Mystery is a hidden laugh always ready to surface! Glamour only radiates if there is a sublime courage & bravery within: glamour is like the moon; it only shines because the sun is there.” - C. JoyBell C.

57. “The first rule of style is to have something to say. The second rule of style is to control yourself when, by chance, you have two things to say; say first one, then the other, not both at the same time.” - George Polya

58. “What about his style?" asked Dalgliesh who was beginning to think that his reading had been unnecessarily restricted."Turgid but grammatical. And, in these days, when every illiterate debutante thinks she is a novelist, who am I to quarrel with that? Written with Fowler on his left hand and Roget on his right. Stale, flat and, alas, rapidly becoming unprofitable...""What was he like as a person?" asked Dalgliesh."Oh, difficult. Very difficult, poor fellow! I thought you knew him? A precise, self-opinionated, nervous little man perpetually fretting about his sales, his publicity or his book jackets. He overvalued his own talent and undervalued everyone else's, which didn't exactly make for popularity.""A typical writer, in fact?" suggested Dalgliesh mischievously.” - P.D. James

59. “The decor was attractive and strong, but blander than she would have thought his wealth and position afforded him. Caren couldn't see the point of having that much money if all of it led to beige.” - Attica Locke

60. “People say 'Hofmann has different styles'. I have not. I have different moods; I am not two days the same man.” - Hans Hofmann

61. “From time to time, you may see a girl wearing her black opaque tights as pants. They are, in fact, not.” - Nina Garcia

62. “... look treasured” - Treasure Stitches

63. “you are what you wear” - Treasure Stitches

64. “Women are extraordinary creatures!” - Roman Payne

65. “Dare we care at all about current fashions if that means reducing our ability to help hungry neighbors? How many more luxuries should we buy for ourselves and our children when others are dying for lack of bread?” - Ron Sider

66. “Style, after all, is a kind of humor,Something truly beneath contempt...” - Larry Levis

67. “[N]othing about a book is so unmistakable and so irreplaceable as the stamp of the cultured mind. I don't care what the story is about or what may be the momentary craze for books that appear to have been hammered out by the village blacksmith in a state of intoxication; the minute you get the easy touch of the real craftsman with centuries of civilisation behind him, you get literature.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

68. “fabrics doesn't make exquisite dresses, it is the stitches.” - Treasure Stitches

69. “A study of fifty women conducted in 1887 revealed that the corset forcibly contracted their waists by anywhere between two and a half and six bodies. The pressure it applied to women's bodies averaged twenty-one pounds but could reach as high as eighty-eight pounds. Tight-lacing was thus akin to crushing oneself slowly from all sides. As a harsh critic of the corset noted, 'It is evident, physiologically, that air is the pabulum of life, and that the effects of a tight cord round the neck and of tight-lacing only differ in degree.... for the strangulations are both fatal. To wear tight stays is in many cases to wither, to waste and to die.” - Joshua Zeitz

70. “The most durable thing in writing isstyle. It is a projection of personality and you haveto have a personality before you can project it. Itis the product of emotion and perception.” - Raymond Chandler

71. “She's beautiful,' he murmured.'She's a metre across the hips, easily,' said Julia.'That is her style of beauty,' said Winston.” - George Orwell

72. “Style comes from knowing who you are and who you want to be in the world; it does not come from wanting to be somebody else, or wanting to be thinner, shorter, taller, prettier.” - Nina Garcia

73. “Aside from infrequent comments ("Cheer up, love," or "It's not Hallo'ween"), no one wondered why a teenager was dressed up as a chic governess. Sylvie approved of Miri, even at the same time as she was confused by her. "It's a style at least," she said, and took off her rope of pearls and looped them around Miri's neck.” - Helen Oyeyemi

74. “Style is a deeply personal expression of who you are, and every time you dress, you are asserting a part of yourself.” - Nina Garcia

75. “While clothes may not make the woman, they certainly have a strong effect on her self-confidence, which, I believe, does make the woman.” - Mary Kay Ash

76. “New' is a word for fools in towns who think / Style upon style in dress and thought at last / Must get somewhere.” - Robert Frost

77. “You're flying Buzz! No Woody we're falling in style!” - Disney

78. “You should really stay true to your own style. When I first started writing, everybody said to me, 'Your style just isn't right because you don't use the really flowery language that romances have.' My romances - compared to what's out there - are very strange, very odd, very different. And I think that's one of the reasons they're selling.” - Jude Deveraux

79. “And lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland, for the English spoken there is so amusing and musical. (“How to Write with Style”. Essay, 1985)” - Kurt Vonnegut

80. “All I can tell you about fashion and style is this: buy and wear what makes you happy.” - John Jannuzzi

81. “... [In 'Pride and Prejudice'] Mr Collins's repulsiveness in his letter [about Lydia's elopement] does not exist only at the level of the sentence: it permeates all aspects of his rhetoric. Austen's point is that the well-formed sentence belongs to a self-enclosed mind, incapable of sympathetic connections with others and eager to inflict as much pain as is compatible with a thin veneer of politeness. Whereas Blair judged the Addisonian sentence as a completely autonomous unit, Austen judges the sentence as the product of a pre-existing moral agent. What counts is the sentence's ability to reveal that agent, not to enshrine a free-standing morsel of truth.Mr Darcy's letter to Elizabeth, in contrast, features a quite different practice of the sentence, including an odd form of punctation ... The dashes in Mr Darcy's letter transform the typographical sentence by physically making each sentence continuous with the next one. ... The dashes insist that each sentence is not self-sufficient but belongs to a larger macrostructure. Most of Mr Darcy's justification consists not of organised arguments like those of Mr Collins but of narrative. ... The letter's totality exists not in the typographical sentence but in the described event.” - Andrew Elfenbein