fine feathers

fine feathers

Remarkably attractive clothing. Look at that gown! She is certainly in fine feathers tonight.
See also: feather, fine
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

fine feathers

beautiful clothes.
The proverb fine feathers make fine birds , meaning that an eye-catching appearance makes a person seem beautiful or impressive, has been known in England since the late 19th century. It is recorded in the early 16th century in French as les belles plumes font les beaux oiseaux .
See also: feather, fine
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • fine by (one)
  • do fine for (someone)
  • do somehow for
  • in fine style
  • cut it fine
  • cut it/things fine
  • (that's) fine by me
  • (that's) fine with me
  • fine with me
  • in fine
References in classic literature
The ugly jackdaw, collecting all the fine feathers which had fallen from the other birds, attached them to his own body and appeared at the examination, looking very gay.
He doesn't seem to fancy me in fine feathers. He says I ought to be minding the pigs at home, and I suppose I ought.
As everybody knows, fine feathers make fine birds; a peasant girl but very moderately prepossessing to the casual observer in her simple condition and attire, will bloom as an amazing beauty if clothed as a woman of fashion with the aids that Art can render; while the beauty of the midnight crush would often cut but a sorry figure if placed inside the field-woman's wrapper upon a monotonous acreage of turnips on a dull day.
Dowley was in fine feather, and I early got him started, and then adroitly worked him around onto his own history for a text and himself for a hero, and then it was good to sit there and hear him hum.
I knew that "Monsieur le Comte" would take no notice of me when we met at dinner, as also that the General would not dream of introducing us, nor of recommending me to the "Comte." However, the latter had lived awhile in Russia, and knew that the person referred to as an "uchitel" is never looked upon as a bird of fine feather. Of course, strictly speaking, he knew me; but I was an uninvited guest at the luncheon--the General had forgotten to arrange otherwise, or I should have been dispatched to dine at the table d'hote.
The crafty homesteader may choose to raise geese for their down feathers; the layer of fine feathers underneath the goose's large exterior plume.
The fine feathers of their proposed "country and heritage park" hide a rotten core for the whole of Monklands.
There was a special request this time around, with the ladies complying-that they all wear fascinators, perched on their coiffures, whether they be of fine feathers or ruffled tulle.
Fine feathers add just the right touch of glamour for race-goers at Ladies Day at York racecourse yesterday Alan Crowhurst
Amid the frivolity and demimonde ethos, a soulful little poem by Rumi was printed in her show's booklet -- clues to the many puffy tufts of fine feathers glued atop the canvases: "My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.
Color evolution among grackles and their kin is not about males showing off their fine feathers. It's more about females switching their looks, a new analysis indicates.
Owing to the influence of fashion and women's natural liking for a variation of 'fine feathers',' there are few women who can claim that they always wear all their clothes until they are worn out.
Agnes Joyce turned the key for the final time on her clothing shop, Fine Feathers, on Narrow West Street in Drogheda, Co Louth.
It was also a chance to rub shoulders and drink cocktails with industry insiders from the fashion world, many of whom showed up in fine feathers on the heels of Toronto's Fashion Week.
The dam is home to 26 pairs of breeding grebes, a species once hunted to garner their fine feathers and plumage.