From Hats to Boots - 25 Fun Idioms in English

Recently I again came across Hans Christian Andersen's tale “The Emperor's New Clothes”. (image from Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales Stained Glass Coloring Book, Image courtesy of Dover Publications)

Those of you who grew up with fairy tales will know the story: Two scoundrels claim to fit the emperor with imaginary new clothes. They say that the clothes would be invisible to all who are stupid and incompetent.

His subjects of course pretend not to see that the emperor is indeed naked as he proudly walks through the city. It takes a child to say what everybody can see but is afraid to acknowledge:

“But he hasn't got any clothes on!”

The proverb "clothes make the man" is well known, and the English language is full of idioms that involve different items of clothing. Because idioms in a language don't mean what the individual words say, they can be confusing and challenging to non-native speakers.

Here are 25 idioms in English that all involve clothing items.

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