Fashion After Capital

Fashion may be widely known as the 'child of capitalism', but to fully grasp how and why, we must return to the birth of the fashion economy in the 19th century. Using Karl Marx's discussion of the frock coat – a bourgeois menswear staple – as a focal point, this book examines the philosophies of clothing that began taking shape in art, literature and politics in capitalist 19th-century Europe and America. Telling the story of fashion and capitalism from multiple viewpoints – through Marxism, 19th-century visual culture and historic commentary on dress – Fashion After Capital connects primary visual artefacts, such as diagrams, patterns, plates and paintings, to the backdrop of the new economic mode of readymade clothing and the accelerated rhythm of fashion. Providing an interdisciplinary reading of modern fashion economies through the detailed analysis of a single garment, Smith argues that fashion was not just a result of but was central to the capitalist mode of production; the frock coat comes to symbolise Marx's theory of the commodity and capitalist flows. Also examining other key thinkers such as Hegel, Carlyle, Engels, Mallarmé and Duchamp, we see compelling connections between texts and images and approach 19th-century fashion from a new perspective. Situating dress studies within the broader context of socio-political and economic transition, this book makes a fascinating contribution to nineteenth-century fashion studies and beyond.