Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Fashion

FASHION, in general, signifies the prevailing mode or taste, and is particularly applied to dress. In this respect, it frequently supplies the place of reason; especially when the two principal rules, namely, propriety and conveniency, are neglected.

We cannot enlarge on this article, which, though it frequently undermines the health of blooming youth, and frustrates the fondest hopes of parents, yet is supposed essentially to contribute to the flourishing state of trades and manufactures: hence we doubt, whether the most appropriate censure of that tyrant, whose shrine is revered by all the young, the gay, and the frivolous, would be productive of any good effects. This much, however, we venture to say, that fashion, when trespassing either on the rules of health, propriety, or convenience, ought to be universally exploded; and treated with a similar degree of silent contempt which moral and political innovations generally experience, when they are not supported by a just and solid basis.