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Was fashion a European invention?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2008

Carlo Marco Belfanti
Carlo Marco Belfanti
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, University of Brescia, Via S. Faustino 74B, 25122 Brescia, Italy E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Fashion was arguably a social phenomenon that emerged in Europe during early modern times, and this paper seeks to determine whether it was unknown in the refined civilizations of the East. The conclusion is that fashion was not a European invention. The analysis of the evolution of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese clothing systems underlines how these societies underwent phases in which, thanks to propitious economic conditions, the accentuated propensity towards consumption stimulated behaviour that challenged the traditional hierarchies of appearance, usually regulated by canons of a prescriptive nature. Fashion was not, therefore, a European invention, but it only fully developed as a social institution in Europe, while in India, China, and Japan it only evolved partially, without being able to obtain full social recognition.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , November 2008 , pp. 419 - 443
Copyright
Copyright © London School of Economics and Political Science 2008

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