How far is Thorstein Veblen’s theory, that the main function of dress is the display of wealth, still valid?

Thorstein Veblen first published ‘The Theory of the Leisure Class’ An Economic Study of Institutions in 1899. It was an essay of economic origin and was intended to form a study of the social culture; proposing that the feudal idea of social strata had remained into the current era. His work combines ideas proposed by a broad range of academics and thinkers; including social thinkers, Karl Marx , evolutionary thinkers, Charles Darwin and economists, Adam Smith.

In the study ones class was determined by his ownership of property, and how a greater holding of property manifested itself in different styles of dress. As he writes in paragraph 167 of the text, ‘No line of consumption affords a more apt illustration than expenditure on dress’. Thus in this essay my aim is to demonstrate the relevance of Veblen’s text in 2014, considering the ever evolving class structure as well as the vast changes in consumerism over the last 100 years.

The paper contains many ideas and theories, but I shall focus on three: The idea that dress is an expression of pecuniary culture; the principal of conspicuous waste, conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption.

Many academics and I share the opinion that the key principal from the text is that of conspicuous waste; In Veblen’s own words ‘It shows the wearer can afford to consume freely and uneconomically.’ He later furthers this idea by suggesting that not only must one be able to waste but they must waste to gain this reputation.

My second principal is that of conspicuous leisure; not only must one be able to consume and waste freely, but they must show they do not need to earn an income, as their current property is enough to sustain their lifestyle, thus differentiating themselves from t...

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...social status. Over the years since Veblen wrote his theory individuality has been a huge part of the fashion industry and how it is consumed. Designers are always looking for new ways to be different and therefor this trickles down to the consumers that want to buy into something more unusual, something that makes them stand out. Exploration of culture and character has influenced how consumers have chosen to communicate through fashion. To some extent wealth would have a part in this, gender, sexuality and age have become a more increasing function of dress over the past century. It is true that more money and affluence would buy you better quality tailoring, fabric and accessories but it is also easy to class people by their social status, gender and age or even to place them into a subculture however it is clear that you can still be unique within these groups.