“Fashion is a fickle tyrant that rules harshly over what Taste alone should govern. 

She imprisons the slender woman in a huge hoop skirt and burdens her with heavy ornaments, 

though she knows she would move more freely, look better, and spend less in a simpler dress. 

Fashion may command her to cut off her beautiful hair and look like a schoolboy, and she obeys without complaint. Winter comes, she is cold, 

yet Fashion orders her to leave off half her clothes and stay out half the night. 

She complies, even at the risk of her health and life. 

Much more could be said of this tyrant, but we have said enough for now.”  

Anna Laetitia Barbauld