Wife Dressing Quotes

“The kitchen is your natural setting as a woman and you should look beautiful, not bedraggled, in it. Whether you go to work or work at home- or both- take advantage of the opportunity the kitchen offers for expressing your wifely qualities in what you wear. Pinafores, organdies, and aprons look wonderful, as do gay cotton wrap-arounds that slip on over your dress while you make breakfast.

Too much attention is paid to kitchen equipment and decor; too little to what is worn in this setting. Why look like Cinderella's crotchety stepmother when you can be a lyrical embodiment of all that a home and hearth means!”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Never close your mind to a color. Remember, too, that texture is an important element. The same dress in the same shade of red may look wonderful on you in soft velvet but too harsh in a hard-finished taffeta. Think in terms of color combined with texture, not of one or the other independently.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Good taste and the amount of money spent are interrelated but not necessarily dependent on each other.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Dress for everything. Fashion is for today. Don't look back. Don't look further ahead than the current season. Don't save the dress that won wolf whistles the summer before last. The whistles may change to groans.”
― Anne Fogarty

“When your husband's eyes light up as he comes in at night, you're in sad shape if it's only because he smells dinner cooking.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Like married life itself, wife-dressing is pretty basic. It requires frank understanding of yourself, a healthy attitude toward your new responsibilities, a willingness to learn from experience, and a buoyant elation about being alive.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Nothing spoils an outfit more than time-worn shoes and shoes which are obviously out of style. Since shoes are made in such an enormous range of color, fabric, and type, don't buy them to last forever.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“he worst mistake you can make is to force yourself to shop. The most important part of shopping is your frame of mind. How can you make a proper choice if you feel like the mistreated heroine of a soap opera?

A frivolous hat or other bit of forbidden fruit are ideal for beating the blues, but stay out of the dress and coat departments until you feel enthusiastic. If your body isn't attuned to fashion, you won't look right in anything. And if you're depressed because you've gained a few pounds, don't buy something too small to grow down to. Lose the few pounds first then go shopping. [i] Remember, diets always start tomorrow. [/i]”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“If you give small, informal dinner parties, have a few long or short colorful skirts and dresses in jersey or flannel with gay party aprons to make your role of hostess festive yet comfortable.

If your husband's work means continuous parties, conventions, and entertainment, pep up your collection of after-five clothes with satin pumps in different colors.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Know who you are, what you stand for- your enthusiasms, your ambitions, your hopes, your responsibilities. Remember that it's your husband for whom you're dressing. Keep him in mind when you shop.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“If you must be a slave to something, make it Scrabble or knitting or casserole cookery. Anything but fashion, where you must be the mistress of your fate.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“If you're feeling depressed, don't try to jazz up your spirits with too violent an extreme so that you wind up looking like Pagliacci, your sadness intensified by the brightness of your costume.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“It will take some clever appraisal on your part, but your clothes should express value without extravagance, warmth without being brazen, and understanding without looking like Whistler's Mother.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“You want adaptability in what you're wearing and freedom of movement. You can have all these advantages at your fingertips by carrying a tote bag- which I sincerely believe is the best thing that's happened to women since the vote.”
― Anne Fogarty

“If you've become addicted to dark stockings or tights, be careful not to look like a Charles Addams heroine. The "beatnik" bit is wonderful for sloppy, slushy days, but should not be allowed to take over.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“For purely psychological reasons, have at least one ultra-glamorous negligee to wear when you're not feeling well. You can feel like the heroine of a Victorian novel being pampered and loved and fed chocolate creams on a horsehair sofa.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Courage and discretion go hand in hand: the courage to dare to be yourself, the discretion not to overdo; the courage to do something unusual, the discretion to temper it.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Wear a full skirt [when traveling], which does not bind the way slacks might, and will also be acceptable wherever you stop to eat or sleep. At the end of a long stretch on the road, you'll feel less fatigued if you look presentable when you get out of the car. It's human nature.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“Except for camping out at a beach cottage, dungarees have no place in wife-dressing. Pants must be perfectly styled to flatter the female figure. Dungarees, by definition and price, cannot be exquisitely tailored. Leave them to youngsters.”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife

“A husband's interest in his wife's wardrobe will add to his understanding of her needs and desires as a woman; a wife's regard for her husband's preferences and judgment on how she looks add up to a happy marriage,”
― Anne Fogarty, Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife