Fashion between process and system: A response to Van de Peer and Laermans

Abstract

In this response to Van de Peer and Laermans's sociology of fashion dialogue opener, I will both respond to their call for including new areas of inspection within fashion scholarship, and argue that by including a meaningful focus on processes, not just systems, fashion scholarship can gain in historical and contemporary depth. In my brief empirical case studies, I consider the complex fashionabilities of Port wine in the eighteenth century, champagne in the nineteenth century, and rosé wine in the early twenty-first century. Through these cases, I seek to stress that fashion sociology must keep also history within its analytical reach, in order for meaningful and comprehensive theoretical understanding of fashion to develop further.