“Fashion is the imitation of a given example and satisfies the demand for social adaptation; it leads the individual on the road to equality, but... also the need for differentiation, the tendency toward dissimilarity.” — Georg Simmel, “Fashion” (1904)
The Paradox of the Trend
Why do we follow trends we know will disappear? Why does fashion, of all things, provoke such intense cultural anxiety—and such deep personal investment?
In his 1904 essay “Fashion,” Georg Simmel treats the question seriously—not as a matter of taste or industry, but of social form. For Simmel, fashion is not superficial. It is the stage on which two opposing modern impulses play out: the desire to belong and the desire to be distinct.
Fashion emerges, he argues, precisely at the intersection of these forces. It spreads by imitation—making the wearer feel connected to a group—but it must also promise differentiation. If everyone adopts the style, it becomes passé. Fashion dies when it succeeds too well.
Thus, fashion is inherently unstable, always reaching for its own obsolescence.
Class, Copying, and Revolt
Simmel’s analysis is also a subtle theory of class and aspiration. Fashion often flows from elite to mass—from the innovator to the imitator. As lower classes adopt a style, the upper classes move on, seeking distinction once again. This trickle-down logic anticipates Bourdieu’s later work on taste and distinction.
But Simmel doesn’t view fashion as simply reinforcing hierarchy. It can also subvert it. Youth cultures, subcultures, and marginalized groups often use fashion as inversion—turning the codes of respectability inside out. Punk, drag, Afrofuturism, goth: these are not just styles, but statements. Fashion can be resistance—until, of course, it’s commodified again.
From the Street to the Feed
What Simmel grasped is that fashion is not about clothes. It’s about visibility. And in our hyper-mediated age, fashion’s logic has become algorithmic.
Online, fashion moves at dizzying speeds. Micro-trends rise and fall weekly; aesthetics are curated, collapsed, and recycled in real time. Platforms like TikTok or Pinterest have turned personal style into data: remixable, trackable, monetizable. Yet the social function remains the same—fashion marks identity, aspiration, affiliation.
We don’t just dress to express ourselves. We dress to be seen—by the right people, in the right moment, with just enough difference to matter.
Why It Still Matters
Simmel’s theory of fashion reveals a deep truth about modern identity: that our performances of individuality are always entangled with social scripts. We want to stand out—but never too much. We want to belong—but not anonymously.
This isn’t hypocrisy. It’s the structure of modern life.
To study fashion, then, is to study the drama of modern selfhood—anxious, performative, fluid. Simmel gives us a lens to see not just what we wear, but why we wear it, and what it costs to keep up.
See also: Distinction, Taste, and Class Today: Revisiting Bourdieu’s Classic Insight
