Abstract
The history of fashion is entwined with the global spread of capitalism. Clothing industries helped make the modern world and set different regions on the pathway to prosperity, although economic growth was predicated on exploiting workers. Tracing the origins of colonial capitalism in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and cotton fields of America and drawing the connections to the industrial revolution in Great Britian, this chapter gives an overview of key moments in the growth and globalisation of the fashion sector. This progresses to a discussion of the spread of clothing factories from western economies to East Asia, China and beyond. As fashion becomes increasingly fast, new developments in technology are pushing the boundaries of production and consumption. Although clothes are manufactured in low and middle-income countries where industrial process turn materials like cotton into useful garments, clothes are also made as commodities with symbolic value via advertising and marketing and these activities are concentrated in rich nations. New digital technologies are vital in making value in clothes and a crucial part of late capitalism. The final section explores the way in which the clothing market has responded, in limited ways, to social pressures to make fashion more sustainable through the growing popularity of peer-to-peer second-hand clothing resale platforms, including Vinted.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Routledge Companion to Fashion and Business |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 3 Dec 2025 |
Keywords
- Cotton
- Colonialism
- Capitalism
- Fashion
- Business