This study deals with consumption and production of
women s outerwear in Britain, drawing on the dynamic
notion of fashion , as a social process of demand
formation and as a commodifying process of
innovation and diffusion. It aims to account for
continuities and changes in consumer tastes and
producer strategies, in the context of increasing
affluence and globalisation since the 1950s.
The central argument is that the development of the
economy expanded the range of lifestyle options, in
terms of consumption, employment and conjugal
relationships, but due to the interdependent nature
of consumer preference, choices became increasingly
contagious and prone to cyclical obsolescence. This,
in turn, continued to fuel commercial competition in
the market and material abundance in the society.
Women s outerwear provides a representative case for
my inquiry into mass consumer society in twentieth-
century Britain.
women s outerwear in Britain, drawing on the dynamic
notion of fashion , as a social process of demand
formation and as a commodifying process of
innovation and diffusion. It aims to account for
continuities and changes in consumer tastes and
producer strategies, in the context of increasing
affluence and globalisation since the 1950s.
The central argument is that the development of the
economy expanded the range of lifestyle options, in
terms of consumption, employment and conjugal
relationships, but due to the interdependent nature
of consumer preference, choices became increasingly
contagious and prone to cyclical obsolescence. This,
in turn, continued to fuel commercial competition in
the market and material abundance in the society.
Women s outerwear provides a representative case for
my inquiry into mass consumer society in twentieth-
century Britain.