Categories participate in the construction of markets by defining their producers, consumers and substitutable goods. Until now, research on categories has mainly focused on their effects, overlooking questions relating to their emergence. This article fills this gap by studying the role of a trade fair, the Ethical Fashion Show, in shaping ethical fashion. Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews, secondary data, observations and physical objects, it studies the practices aimed at elaborating the critical project of ethical fashion, defining its principles and diffusing the category. Four contributions stem from this research. First, it reveals the role of critiques in the emergence of categories. Second, it shows that their content is shaped by practices of purification and hybridisation. Third, it highlights the role of spokespersons in the representation of categories. Fourth, drawing on actor–network theory, it theorises market categorisation as a process of translation.
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