Where does the line 'first in best dressed' originate from?

Answer 1

First in, best dressed.

I believe it originated from an old Latin proverb...

`prior tempore, prior jure.'
[First in time, first by right.]
[First come, first served.]
@`Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary' Deluxe Second Edition. 1964 Simon & Schuster

There are many proverbial forms of the thought since it's Latin origin:

He who comes first, eats first.
- Eike von Repkow (fl. c. 1220)
@`Sachsenspiegel' (1219-1233)
Cited in `Bartlett's Familiar Quotations' 16th Edition

Whoso that first to mille comth, first grynt.
- Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400)
@(c. 1390) `Wife of Bath's Prologue'
Cited in `The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs' 2nd Ed.

first come first serued.
- Henry Brinklow
@(1548) `Complaint of Roderick Mors'
Cited in `Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable' 1981

There are many ethnic versions of this proverb as well.

"First Come, best dressed" seems to have originated in Australia, maybe in the 19th century.

Answer 2

First Come Best Dressed

Answer 3

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RE:
Where does the line 'first in best dressed' originate from?

Answer 4

First In Best Dressed

Answer 5

When did men start wearing dull 'dark' suits/attire, and ties (nooses!), for their weddings? Probably in the damn 'Victorian' era, the 'Industrial Revolution/De-volution' era (the beginning industrialization of our minds!). It certainly wasn't the case in the European Renaissance, when men wore bright colors, and even ruffles and lace!)