The worship of the new, self-renewal, innovation, acceleration of economic processes, and generally the way of life in late modernity are inherently linked to fashion. Fashion exists through the "perishable new" and is among the most characteristic functions of economic capital.

However, fashion does other things as well: it introduces ways of relating to oneself, others, time, and objects. Fashion reflects social and cultural trends and interacts with them. It translates these trends into the various languages it has devised: high fashion, mass fashion, and fast fashion.

Fashion exhibits selective affinities with other modern institutions and, from this perspective, helps shape fundamental aspects of the subjectivity of late modernity. Fashion plays a crucial role in shaping modern temporal regimes, including the rhythms, narratives, and orientations of people within the present, past, and future.

As a child—and as a mechanism for shaping—of modernity (both classical and late) and of our shared culture, fashion is an open field for sociological knowledge and critique. This book explores these complex functions of fashion.