BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO THEORY - FASHION CYCLES - this reading is extracts (...) from the set text. 

CHAPTER 3 - FASHION CYCLES, SYMBOLS AND FLOWS, FROM FASHION - THE KEY CONCEPTS. JENNIFER CRAIK. 2009.

One of the most difficult things to explain about fashion is how and why different styles become popular and then fall out of favour. ... 

... we introduce the three most commonly cited fashion theories that have developed in the social sciences. These are:

The trickle-down theory associated with Thorstein Veblen (1899), Georg Simmel (1904), and Grant McCracken (1985)
The collective behaviour model of Herbert Blumer (1969)
The six-stage general fashion theory of George Sproles (1985)

Each of these theories explores fashion as part of a wider system in which cycles of fashion (how certain styles come round again and again) fit into the broader social structure and underpin the way in which individuals locate themselves as social beings within their cultural context. Common to the three theories is the investigation of how fashions move from the trendsetters to arbiters of fashion and then are taken up by wider sections of the population. Trickle-down theory explores how a style adopted by the elite is emulated by those who revere the style setters. The collective behaviour model proposes that there is an unconscious consensus that emerges within a group to adopt a certain look, which is then adopted more generally, while the six-stage theory identifies a general theory of invention, popularisation, obsolescence, and renewal that occurs on a cyclical basis.

The Trickle-Down Theory Of Fashion


The trickle-down theory ... emerged with debates about the nature of class society. Initially associated with the spread of fashion from royalty to the aristocracy and middle classes, trickle-down theory came to epitomise the development of capitalist society. Fashion became a mechanism to display class difference through an adoption of new styles of dress that differentiated the elite from the mass. However, as new styles were popularised and copied by the masses in a trickle-down process, the elite felt impelled to conjure up a new style that maintained their distinctiveness. ...


... Veblen characterised this process in terms of the desire of the elite to look visibly different by way of extravagant purchases (conspicuous consumption), and to equally visibly reject outdated fashions in a display of conspicuous waste, ...


However, critics argue that the theory is much too rooted in a notion of class differentiation, which is only one impulse toward fashionable behaviour ...


Nor can it explain fashions that emerge from below and are adopted by the elite (the bubble-up or trickle-up theory - see Polhemus 2007:327-31). In this reversal of the theory, it is argued that some fashions and styles originate among the non-elite or subcultures but are adopted by the elite. The case of blue jeans ... is exemplary here. A garment marketed to miners and other blue-collar workers as durable and practical was adopted by rebel youths and popular musicians. In turn, jeans became the uniform of young people and gradually were adopted by older people too. ...


The Collective Behaviour Model of Fashion


In contrast to the top-down theory, Herbet Blumer argued that, rather then the elite setting fashion trends, fashion emerged from a collective desire to be 'in fashion' through the articulation of a sense of taste at a given moment and endorsement of certain styles and looks over others. In this way, a fashion emerges from the collective unconscious of a culture rather than being imposed from above in a process of collective selection. ...


While Blumer acknowledged the difficulty of explaining how this collective mood and sense of taste are actualised, his theory placed fashion in the hands of the masses rather than the elite ...


This theory is useful as a broad-brush theory that can explain societal trends in fashion but is less useful for explaining why some fashions take off and others don't ...


The Six-Stage General Fashion Theory


By contrast, a number of sociologists of fashion have adopted (and adapted) George Sprole's six-stage general fashion theory ... which accounts for the various points of the fashion system, including the development, popularisation, decline, and replacement of a particular fashion or style. ...


George Sprole's Six-Stage Fashion Process Integrating Sociological, Economic, and Psychological Factors


1. Invention of fashion through market or social norms
2. Endorsement and adoption by elites and celebrities
3. Diffusion of the fashion through the fashion conscious
4. Take-up of fashions by non-fashionable groups
5. Transformation of fashion from novelty to symbol of the times; simultaneous experimentation with new fashions
6. Obsolescence of existing style and start of new phase (Sproles 1985; see also Kunz 1996:320) ...


Davies (1992: 123-58) collapses these stages into five stages: invention, introduction, fashion leadership increasing social visibility, and waning ... Again, it is a broad theory that explains general trends and cycles of fashionability, but not deviations from fashion norms or new stylistic inventions that usher in a new fashion era or sensibility. (Craik, 2009, pp.105-109).

REFERENCE

Craik, J. (2009) Fashion - the key concepts. Oxford: Berg.