Day 109: The Sociology of Fashion, Feminism, and Social Class

This month, the FFB's (Feminist Fashion Bloggers) monthly topic of discussion is social class, as it pertains to feminism and the fashion/beauty industry. The roundup for all posts can be found here.

Warning: this is my most geeky academic post, by far.  And it has very little to do with mirrors.  (You lucky readers, you!)  Below please find a series of edited excerpts from my PhD qualifying exam on Cultural Sociology.  (Seriously.)  Naturally, I wrote about fashion.  


So.... what do sociologists have to say about fashion, social class and feminism?  Plenty!  Here goes:

One of the earliest sociological theories of fashion appears in Thornstein Veblen’s analysis of conspicuous consumption, in which products are consumed as a way of demonstrating wealth and status. This theory has been used to explain the fashion cycle in clothing.  George Simmel explains that, as the lower classes imitate their social superiors, the elite strive to distinguish themselves from them.  Thus, once a particular fashion diffuses down the social strata, it can no longer be considered “in fashion” by elites, and must be replaced by a new trend.  

Marxist feminists have voiced concerns that capitalist beauty culture reinforces the subjugation of women, particularly poorer women. Commenting on how “under capitalism, the sale of women as commodities” has been “displaced by the sale of commodities to women,” Evelyn Reed remarked that, “The fashion world became a capitalist gold mine with virtually unlimited possibilities. All a big businessman had to do was to change the fashions often enough [...] and he could become richer and richer.”  The agenda of the (capitalist) fashion world, Reed argues, exploits women by both their gender and their class: “while it may be ‘fun’ for wealthy women to discard their wardrobes with each season, such expectations are “disastrous for the poor.”  By this sensibility, fashion can both reflect and reproduce social inequality.

Interestingly, most contemporary accounts of the fashion cycle suggest that Simmel’s “top-down” theory no longer predominates!  Instead, Diana Crane argues that, although 19^th century fashion followed a class-and-gender-based “top-down” model, “contemporary fashion is more ambiguous and multifaceted,” and, since the 1960s, a “‘bottom-up’ model, in which new styles emerge in lower-status groups and are later adopted by higher-status groups [...] has explained an important segment of fashion phenomena,” (pg. 14).

Also, many fashion trends appear to bypass the issue of class entirely, and instead follow patterns of “personal identity” to include consumer identification with groupings based on age, race, gender, sexuality, leisure activities, and various sub-cultural allegiances.  That contemporary fashion cycles operate differently from purely top-down models suggests a certain democratization of fashion, and perhaps increased space for people to challenge class and gender inequalities through fashion. 

So there you have it.  Proof that I'm a total geek.  But I do love fashion, and I'm endlessly fascinated by it's role in both reflecting, reproducing, and challenging social inequality!  And now I have a question for you:


WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR FASHION INSPIRATION?  FROM ELITES OR OFF THE STREETS??


Thanks again to FFB for creating discussion around this well-deserved topic!

SOURCES CITED:          

Crane, D. (2000). Fashion and its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.

           

Davis, F. (1992). Fashion, Culture, and Identity. Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press.

           

Reed, E. (1954). The Woman Question and the Marxist Method. Cosmetics, Fashions and the Exploitation of Women. J. Hanson and E. Reed. New York, Pathfinder Press.

           

Simmel, G. (1957 [1904]). "Fashion." American Journal of Sociology 62: 541-558.

           

Veblen, T. (1994 [1899]). The Theory of the Leisure Class. Mineola, N.Y., Dover Publications.

         

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