This paradox was coined by Logan Pearsall Smith, the essayist. Fashion can here be defined as ‘a prevailing custom especially in dress’. It has been said that we are all slaves to it, yet there are always those who refuse to conform and deliberately go against it. Fashion, however, is constantly changing, with the result that these upholders of personal freedom have to alter their costume accordingly, which makes them also fashion’s slaves.
In a wider sense, anyone who ‘kicks against the pricks‘ is adding to the difficulties of his existence. A man who takes up a life of crime because he dislikes work of any kind often works much harder than those in honest employment.