Georg Simmel

I spotted this statement on a tee shirt worn by a young woman in Grand Central Station, just the other day.

From a file I was putting away at my desk, I ran across some quotes I’d gathered for the “Rakish History of Men’s Wear” exhibition. The following lines are by Georg Simmel (1858-1918), who wrote an academic treatise called “Fashion” in 1901:

“..we see that fashion furnishes an ideal field for individuals with dependent natures, whose self-consciousness, however, requires a certain amount of prominence, attention, and singularity. Fashion raises even the unimportant individual by making him the representative of a class, the embodiment of a joint spirit.”

If true, and I suspect it is, the young woman’s tee shirt makes even more sense…

Don’t Forget! Costume and Fashion History class this Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in South Court Classroom B.