What is Fashion? Outlining a Component-part Definition

• In Event: 078 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Consumer Studies Network

Abstract

A number of important works in the sociology of fashion have surfaced in the last 20 years from multiple traditions and methods – enough to identify fashion as a distinct subfield within the sociology of culture. They include contributions from symbolic interactionism, the production of culture perspective, and economic sociology. They span methods to include archival research, interviews, ethnography, in some cases survey data. Topics of interest include intersections with race, class and taste, gender performances and restrictions, identity, and a new place for aesthetics. At the same time, there is little theoretical integration. At the heart of the issue, I believe, is a failure to identify the object of our study. In this paper, I outline a component-part definition of fashion as dynamic conformity to the modal representation of taste. I draw on major works in the subfield, as well as my own ethnographic research on fashion weeks in the US and garment production in India, to illustrate each component part. Clarifying fashion as a sociological phenomenon has broader implications for research on culture and collective behavior.

Author

• Alexander Hoppe, University of Pennsylvania