The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy (New French Thought Series)

Great!!!

I thought that this was an extremely interesting book, and well worth reading since it goes against so much common wisdom. I found it thoughtful, provocative, and convincing. This is part of a great change in perspective for this former Marxist. It was originally published in France in 1987 as L'Empire de l'éphémère : la mode et son destin dans les sociétés modernes.Despite the English subtitle, Lipovetsky is not just discussing clothing, although that is his starting point. He also uses fashion in a very broad sense, meaning not so much to follow a particular mode, but the ability to select and create variants for oneself. He argues that fashion in clothing is a unique development in 14th century Europe. In other places and times, styles of dress remained basically the same for centuries, reflecting a reverence for the past, which was often viewed as a better time. Styles might change as one culture conquered another and either forced its own dress on the captive peoples, or as those peoples imitated those in power.In 14th century Europe, for reasons that are not entirely clear, the aristocrats began to experiment with novelty, aesthetic experimentation, hedonism, and individualism in clothing. This developed over time, extending to lower classes, and expanding outward into other facets of life. Lipovetsky argues that this is, on the whole, good, and a necessary part of modernism and multiculturalism. Such societies are more flexible and more tolerant, and cherish human rights because they respect individualism. Lipovetsky is not blind to the possibilities of social anomie, but he does not feel that it is occurring to a degree that offsets the advantages of fashion as he defines it. Societies which look to the past for the model of perfection often force conformity upon others. He argues that Toqueville's (and other's) fears that democracy would lead to uniformity are unlikely to be realized, because, as Tarde argues, everyone doesn't imitate one or a few people, rather individuals draw ideas from many sources and create their own unique lifestyles. Interestingly, Lipovetsky uses words like narcissistic, hedonistic, and frivolous freely, because he feels that these terms, although usually viewed negatively, in the end have positive consequences.Among other things, Lipovetsky casts doubt upon the ability of advertising to create needs and wants, rather than ferret them out. He doesn't say so, but I have read that most product launches fail, which does argue against the power of advertising.The English edition, published in 1994, includes an epilogue updating his thoughts. He does not consider the effects of the Internet, which were just beginning at that time. My one criticism of the book is that it is occasionally repetitious, which sometimes blurs his points, and makes the book a little longer than it needs to be, but I consider that to be a small issue weighed against the very interesting and thought-provoking insights. I found it all the more important in view of the recent attacks on Charlie Hebdo, and other terrorist attacks, domestic and international.

In this book Lipovetsky makes explicit ideas that one could find in a more timid way in earlier books. The basic idea of his thought is that fragmentation of society does not, in the way it is thought commonly, mean destruction of morals or democracy. On the contrary, democracy is formed by the powers that are able to join fragmentation and continuity. This is what he shows with fashion. Fashion is from where he can understand what is "the essence" (although it isn't an essenciallist thought)of Western Culture. He uses the concept of fashion to synthetize the opposites: fragmentaed indivilualistic society and universal democratic society. As Hegel, he sees the union of both opposites through the whole reconstruction of Fashion. Not science or Reason but fashion is what explains us better what we are and why we are like that.

This book is not 'I love shopping'. In fact, it is one of those books which fashion academics constantly quote. Somehow surpassed, yet still historically relevant. If you want to know something about fashion, not in a trivial way, you ought to buy this.

Good fashion guide. Beautiful illustrations, and very informative.