Emphasis in excerpts added by QI: 1721, The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq Volume 3 of 4, The Spectator, Number 129, Issue Year: 1711, Issue Date: “Saturday, July 28”, Start, Quote , … Continue readingĭid they keep to one constant dress, they would sometimes be in the fashion, which they never are as matters are managed at present. “The Spectator” employed the clock-based simile when discussing this topic.
If one maintained a single clothing style it would become passé, but eventually it would return to “the mode”, i.e., become fashionable again. Even in the 1700s dress fashions were ever changing. Quote Investigator: The earliest match located by QI appeared in “The Spectator” magazine in 1711. Dodgson the author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
This saying has been attributed to the prominent Austrian writer Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and to the famous children’s author Lewis Carroll, a.k.a., Charles L.