It seems that there exists for each class of human beings, probably for each individual, a definite quantitative relation between the tendency towards individualization and the desire to be merged in the group, so that when the satisfying of one tendency is denied in a certain field of life, he seeks another, in which he then fulfills the measure which he requires. Thus it seems as though fashion were the valve through which woman's craving for some measure of conspicuousness and individual prominence finds vent, when its satisfaction is denied her in other fields.

XREF: This echoes psychological compensation theories and Freudian sublimation concepts that predate and parallel this observation.

DEFINE: Introduces a pressure-valve model: when individualization is blocked in one field, the need expresses itself elsewhere — here fashion becomes the outlet for women's thwarted desire for prominence.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 730