Karl Marx: Fashion and Capitalism

Given Wilson’s comment that ‘fashion is the child of capitalism’ (2003:13), this chapter shows how Marx’s rich conceptual framework can produce a deeper critical understanding of the origins and dynamics of fashion, socially, culturally and materially. For just like the capitalist system which spawned it, fashion is ‘double faced’ (Wilson, ibidem); a source of both pleasure and pain, expression and exploitation.