Here Fashion is a despot, and no one dreams of evading its dictates.

The line personifies Fashion as an absolute ruler—“a despot”—to emphasize how social taste and convention can operate like political power, compelling obedience without the need for overt force. The sharper point is in “no one dreams of evading”: conformity has become internalized, so that resistance is not merely punished but scarcely imagined. Read in the context of elite society (where dress, manners, and display signal rank), the remark critiques how status cultures police behavior through ridicule and exclusion. It also suggests a broader moral: when custom becomes unquestioned, it can govern more effectively than law, narrowing individual freedom while appearing natural or even desirable.