Fashion, to be sure, is concerned only with change, yet like all phenomena it tends to conserve energy; it endeavors to attain its objects as completely as possible, but nevertheless with the relatively most economical means. For this very reason, fashion repeatedly returns to old forms, as is illustrated particularly in wearing-apparel; and the course of fashion has been likened to a circle. As soon as an earlier fashion has partially been forgotten there is no reason why it should not be allowed to return to favor and why the charm of difference, which constitutes its very essence, should not be permitted to exercise an influence similar to that which it exerted conversely some time before.

XREF: Connects to the cyclical-vs-linear debate about cultural change, echoing themes in evolutionary theory and other theories of cyclical history.

DEFINE: Explains why fashion is cyclical: old forms return once they've been sufficiently forgotten, restoring their charm of difference.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 743