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Sunday, April 25, 2021

George Simmel’s Theory on Fashion

                                                            Photo credits: Dior Ⓒ 


 I have analyzed the Fashion theory of George Simmel, which could possibly explain our patterns of behavior when we consume goods. Georg Simmel explains fashion using his forms of socialization (Vergesellschaftung). Simmel distinguishes fashion’s main double function - to connect some social groups and also to individualize. 

According to Simmel, Fashion satisfies the need for distinction, the tendency to differentiation, to change, to the allocation from total mass. Simmel states that people have a tendency to imitation and this gives them the satisfaction of not standing alone in their actions. Mostly those who are from middle and lower classes are most likely to imitate upper-class’s representatives’ behavior. Simmel states, that the elite initiates a fashion and the mass imitates. 

Simmel states, “Fashion is a product of a class distinction and operates like a number of other forms, honor especially, the double function of which consists in revolving within a given circle and at the same time emphasizing it as separate from others.” Hence, having fashionable items is a way to be separate or different and also to be a part of a particular group. 

Also, according to Simmel not only fashion is adopted from the elite, but also social behavior, style, manners and etc. (545) So that in making decisions on something people tend to rely on what they learned as fashionable.

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