Word count: #397
Sociological Theory in the Classical Era: Georg Simmel
Fashion is not a new concept as it has been practiced throughout history. Georg Simmel is one of the philosophers whose work in fashion is dated a hundred years ago which proves that fashion is indeed old. In his work, Simmel offers a sociological perspective on fashion (Blumenberg 2012). This paper, therefore, discusses fashion is a large industry and a strong force in the U.S and all over the world incorporating Simmel’s work.
Fashion is predominant in the U.S and globally mainly because it is part of our identity and people want to be seen differently. Fashion plays a significant role in telling who we are and who we want to be. As such, fashion is a main factor in socialization or rather, it results from social demands. Simmel argued that fashion gets from a fundamental strain explicit to the social state of the person. On one side, every one of us has the propensity to copy others (Aspers and Godart 2013). On the other, we additionally tend to separate ourselves from others.
Without a doubt, a few of us tend more towards impersonation while others seek to be different, yet fashion motion needs both of these conflicting propensities to work. Briefly, Simmel contended that humans are driven by two senses one pushing them to emulate their neighbors, the other pushing them to separate themselves (Harrington and Thomas 2012). Therefore, while some people copy a style from some people, those individuals who are being imitated tend to find other ways of being different from the rest (Wild 2016). This is why the fashion industry in the U.S and the entire universe is big as new designs are being created each day to meet the needs of people who want to have different looks.
Aspers, Patrik and Godart Frederic. 2013. “Sociology of Fashion: Order and change.” Annual Review of Sociology 39: 171-192.
Blumenberg, Hans. 2012. “Money or life: metaphors of Georg Simmel’s philosophy.” Theory, Culture & Society 29: 249-262.
Harrington, Austin and Thomas Kemple M. 2012. “Introduction: Georg Simmel’s ‘sociological metaphysics’: Money, sociality, and precarious life.” Theory, Culture & Society 29: 7-25.
Wild, Benjamin. 2016. “Imitation in Fashion: Further Reflections on the Work of Thorstein Veblen and Georg Simmel.” Fashion, Style & Popular Culture 3: 281-294.