Fashion goods resist the rationalization that transforms other production

Evidence

The more an article becomes subject to rapid changes of fashion, the greater the demand for cheap products of its kind, not only because the larger and therefore poorer classes nevertheless have enough purchasing power to regulate industry and demand objects, which at least bear the outward semblance of style, but also because even the higher circles of society could not afford to adopt the rapid changes in fashion forced upon them by the imitation of the lower circles, if the objects were not relatively cheap. … It has been noticed, especially in the older branches of modern productive industry, that the speculative element gradually ceases to play an influential rôle. The movements of the market can be better overlooked, requirements can be better foreseen and production can be more accurately regulated than before, so that the rationalization of production makes greater and greater inroads on chance conjunctures, on the aimless vacillation of supply and demand. Only pure articles of fashion seem to prove an exception. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 741

Categorization

• QUESTION: How does the irrational, ephemeral fashion economy coexist with the rationalization Simmel claims everywhere else — a ready example of the blasé city’s contradictions?
• XREF: connects to: Prestige-priced shops reveal money as the supreme value through denial — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 458; Rapid fashion change signals nervous exhaustion in an era — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 722; High-end knitwear wholesale can be unprofitable and exploitative for its maker despite prestige accounts — Dolores DeLuce, Blow Jobs: A Guide to Making It in Show…, 77

Related

• Fashion dictates styles with no objective, aesthetic, or practical justification. (similarity 0.82)
• Rapid fashion change signals nervous exhaustion in an era (similarity 0.80)
• Prestige-priced shops reveal money as the supreme value through denial (similarity 0.80)
• The weakening of permanent convictions drives modern consciousness toward fashion (similarity 0.80)
• Fashion arose to reconcile individual identity with mass-produced industrial aesthetics (similarity 0.79)