Aphorism: Mode passes; style remains. (Coco Chanel 1965) Question about French version

victor steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Aug 16 22:37:02 UTC 2011


I really got a laugh out of this find because it is almost diametrically
opposite from the fashion quotes:

http://goo.gl/m8lU4
Roman life in Pliny's time. By Maurice Pellisson. 1897
p. 75

> It is indeed always the same story; beggars of Athens, beggars of Rome,
> beggars of Paris--forlorn always, in all countries, your hovels have no
> history. The houses where people die of cold are all built in the same
> fashion and their style is eternal.



Would anyone be surprised if I said that this book is a translation from
French? It is.


Here's another interesting early variant--that predates both Coco and YSL! I
don't know what caused this, but I spontaneously replaced "is eternal" with
"endures" in the Google search string. The results were shocking.

http://goo.gl/R35VM
The Ohio Architect, Engineer and Builder. Volume 18(1). July 1911 [The talk
took place in Spokane on June 5, 1911.]
No American Architecture. Archibald G. Rigg Tells Spokane, Wash.,
Architectural Club that the Name Is a Misnomer. p. 11/2
>
> Of the many things entering into the different architectural styles, the
> influence of individuals has counted least. One generation of builders has
> taken up the work where its predecessor stopped. The fashions of
> architecture perish ; style endures.


Rigg's talk was published nearly in full.

http://goo.gl/QWfcV
 Architect and Engineer. Volume 25(3). July 1911
p. 61

I was looking for a French connection here too, but did not find one. And it
did not originate with Rigg!!!

http://goo.gl/j7G21
American Renaissance: A Review of Domestic Architecture. By Joy Wheeler Dow.
1904

> The fashions of architecture—they perish. Style endures.



American Home (vol. 2?) from 1929 (verified internally, but not on paper)
gives a preview, but with a blank snipped:

http://goo.gl/7U27P

> Fads come and go. Style endures.


Another snippet from supposedly 1949.

http://goo.gl/bn0Bh
You and Your Personality: A Guide to Effective Living. By Esther Eberstadt
Brooke. 1949 [The date is on the copyright page, but the snippet does not
correspond to preview text.]

> Do justice to your good points and don't penalize your bad ones by calling
> attention to them with clothes that are not for such as you. Choose — and
> stick to— the style that is yours. Fashions are fleeting, but style
> endures.


Now, this one is more interesting as it certainly a book that might have
been seen by Coco Chanel.

Another one is attributed to Stanley Morrison (1976): "It proves merely that
fashion is not only fickle but freakish, whereas great style endures without
interruption."

VS-)

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