The sociocultural pervasiveness of fashion and its relationship to identity. A philosopher’s approach

Abstract

Fashion has always been an elusive phenomenon. In the 20th Century it has become a pervasive one as well.

The elusiveness of fashion – its resistance to conceptualization, may be regarded as the result of a number of variables working within an empty social form, whose only nature consists in giving shape to an ambivalent dynamic of social distinction and assimilation. As Georg Simmel observed, the social form of fashion is marked by this intrinsic ambivalence: it works simultaneously as a way to assimilate and to distinguish oneself, generally through aesthetic creativity.

In turn, the contemporary pervasiveness of fashion may be explained as the result of the confluence of structural changes in society, with some cultural ideas inherited from late-modernity. In some cases, these ideas have given place to “post-modern attitudes”, which put great emphasis on the relationship between fashion and identity. However, I would like to defend the view that post-modern attitudes are not the only factors influencing contemporary fashion-behavior.