Is fashion the key to understanding Western culture? Most people probably think not: after all, Western culture has been around for a long time. But according to Thomas van Beel: yes – at least, since about 1900.Beginning from a definition of fashion as 'time- indexed popularity', the author (following previous analysts) traces its present incarnation to the birth of modern capitalism in the 14th century. The untrammelled acceleration of industrial mercantilism extended it to areas well beyond clothing: particularly (since about 1900) to thought, and now (since about the year 2000), to morality as well. After Fashion draws on the work of Lars Svendsen and Malcolm Barnard (among others), to provide a penetrating critique of the world in which we all - for better or worse - now live.

Is fashion the key to understanding Western culture? Most people probably think not: after all, Western culture has been around for a long time. But according to Thomas van Beel: yes – at least, since about 1900.Beginning from a definition of fashion as 'time- indexed popularity', the author (following previous analysts) traces its present incarnation to the birth of modern capitalism in the 14th century. The untrammelled acceleration of industrial mercantilism extended it to areas well beyond clothing: particularly (since about 1900) to thought, and now (since about the year 2000), to morality as well. After Fashion draws on the work of Lars Svendsen and Malcolm Barnard (among others), to provide a penetrating critique of the world in which we all - for better or worse - now live.