Two social tendencies are essential to the establishment of fashion, namely, the need of union on the one hand and the need of isolation on the other. Should one of these be absent, fashion will not be formed—its sway will abruptly end. Consequently the lower classes possess very few modes and those they have are seldom specific; for this reason the modes of primitive races are much more stable than ours.

DEFINE: Defines fashion's establishment as requiring two opposing social tendencies: union (conformity) and isolation (differentiation).

DEFINE: Defines fashion's formation as requiring a balance of conformity and distinction — a useful explanatory framework for why trends emerge and collapse.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 721