From sumptuary laws to silent luxury: historical evolution of classism in fashion and its new narratives of sustainability and equality
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Classism in fashion, social distinction, symbolic exclusion, sustainable consumption, circular fashion, social justice
This article examines classism in contemporary fashion and its persistence under emerging discourses of sustainability and inclusion. Through a documentary and theoretical review, it explores fashion’s evolution as a language of social distinction and its reconfiguration within the digital and sustainable frameworks of the twenty-first century. Drawing on the classical theories of Veblen, Bourdieu, Lipovetsky, and Entwistle, the study analyzes the symbolic mechanisms through which fashion continues to reproduce class hierarchies while performing inclusivity. The findings reveal that privilege-oriented aesthetics—such as quiet luxury and elite minimalism—along with digital consumption dynamics, reinforce new forms of symbolic exclusion grounded in cultural and media capital. Likewise, sustainability appears as an ambivalent construct: while advocating ethical and social responsibility, it frequently operates as a marker of moral and economic distinction. Nevertheless, circular, decolonial, and inclusive fashion initiatives open alternative pathways to rethink the relationship between fashion, consumption, and social justice. The study concludes that, although fashion still functions as a mechanism of symbolic power, it holds the potential to evolve into a field of cultural redistribution and the pursuit of aesthetic and material equality.
Ayoub, M. (2025). The sociology of fashion: Identity, class and consumerism. Arts and Social Sciences Journal, 16(3), 110.
Beard, N. D. (2008). The branding of ethical fashion and the consumer: A luxury paradox. Fashion Theory, 12(4), 447–468.
Bick, R., Halsey, E., & Ekenga, C. C. (2018). The global environmental injustice of fast fashion. Environmental Health, 17, 92. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-018-0433-7
Black, S. (2020). Eco-Chic: The Fashion Paradox. Black Dog Publishing.
Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. Les Éditions de Minuit.
Calvi, G., Panzera, L., & Rossi, L. (2024). Sumptuary laws, gender and public dressing in early modern Genoa. Annali di Storia dell’urbanistica, 5, 124.
Crane, D. (2000). Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing. University of Chicago Press.
Davis, F. (1992). Fashion, Culture, and Identity. University of Chicago Press.
Desierto, D., & Koyama, M. (2020). The political economy of status competition: Sumptuary laws in preindustrial Europe. https://desireedesierto.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/sumptuary_12.pdf
Entwistle, J. (2000). The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory. Polity Press.
Fletcher, K. (2014). Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys. Earthscan.
Fletcher, K. (2019). Craft of Use: Post-growth fashion and the challenge to consumption. Routledge.
Fu, X. (2021). Old clothes, new consumption: Exploring secondhand clothes consumption practice in the UK (Doctoral thesis). University of Sheffield. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/28065
Gardetti, M. Á., & Torres, A. (2013). Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles: Values, Design, Production and Consumption. Greenleaf.
Gill, R. (2016). Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 147–166.
Hethorn, J., & Ulasewicz, C. (2018). Sustainable Fashion: What's Next? A Conversation about Issues, Practices, and Possibilities. Fairchild.
Jansson, S. (2024). Dressed to Oppress: The Societal Implications of Online Fast Fashion Trends. Tilburg University. https://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=158701
Joy, A., Sherry, J. F., Venkatesh, A., Wang, J., & Chan, R. (2012). Fast fashion, sustainability, and luxury brands. Fashion Theory, 16(3), 273–295.
Jung, J., et al. (2016). Stratification and segmentation: Social class in consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 26(4), 583–593. DOI:10.1016/j.jcps.2016.02.003
Kawamura, Y. (2018). Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies. Bloomsbury Academic.
Kucher, I. (2024). Ordinary fashion consumption: Investigating the practices of clothing purchase, use and disposal in Danish and Ukrainian contexts. Fashion Highlight. https://doi.org/10.36253/fh2758
Lipovetsky, G. (1987). L’Empire de l’éphémère: La mode et son destin dans les sociétés modernes. Gallimard.
Masamba, M. (2024). The relationship between fashion and socioeconomic class. Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity. https://samuelduboiscookcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/5-7-24-masamba-final-poster.pdf
McNeil, P. (2017). Luxury: A Rich History. Oxford University Press.
Niinimäki, K. (2020). Sustainable Fashion in a Circular Economy. Aalto University Press.
Pan, X. (2023). The evolving role of class in choice of fashion in postmodern society. ESSS Humanities & Social Sciences, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v8i.4714
Pham, M. (2015). Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet: Race, Gender, and the Work of Personal Style Blogging. Duke University Press.
Potter, S. (2025). How conspicuous is fashion? A quantitative analysis of luxury discourse in Vogue and income inequality, 1910–2000. LSE Working Paper 045. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/129442/
Ragusa, P. (2023). Life-centered design: Bridging the gap between gendered clothing systems and institutional spaces. University of Arkansas. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/artuht/8
Rinaldi, F. (2019). Sustainable Luxury and Social Value: Towards a New Paradigm. Springer.
Rocamora, A. (2002). Fields of Fashion: Critical Insights into Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture. Journal of Consumer Culture, 2(3), 341–362.
Salah, T. (2021). Racial capitalism: How capitalism denies black bodies in the fashion industry. Fashion Theory.
Sare, B., et al. (2020). Oppressive curriculum: Sexist, racist, classist, and homophobic practice of dress codes in schooling.
Skov, L. (2020). Globalization and Fashion: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Routledge.
Thomas, D. (2020). Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes. Penguin Press.
Tyler, I., & Bennett, B. (2010). ‘Celebrity chav’: Fame, femininity and social class. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(3), 375–393.
Usunobun, A. (2024). Socioeconomic and psychological factors affecting clothing consumption among female undergraduates in Nigeria. Journal of Education and General Studies, 13(2), 48–57.
Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. Macmillan.
Villafuerte, N. (2019). Animal Fur Coats: A Symbol of Status or Stigma? California State University, Fullerton. https://thesis.fullerton.edu/handle/20.500.12680/9YEFCK3S
Wilson, E. (1985). Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. University of California Press.
Wissinger, E. (2015). This Year’s Model: Fashion, Media, and the Making of Glamour. New York University Press.
Wold, P., Thompson, D., & Berger, J. (2019). Trickle-round signals: When low status is mixed with high. Journal of Consumer Research, 46(5), 1005–1030. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucz042
This article examines classism in contemporary fashion and its persistence under emerging discourses of sustainability and inclusion. Through a documentary and theoretical review, it explores fashion’s evolution as a language of social distinction and its reconfiguration within the digital and sustainable frameworks of the twenty-first century. Drawing on the classical theories of Veblen, Bourdieu, Lipovetsky, and Entwistle, the study analyzes the symbolic mechanisms through which fashion continues to reproduce class hierarchies while performing inclusivity. The findings reveal that privilege-oriented aesthetics—such as quiet luxury and elite minimalism—along with digital consumption dynamics, reinforce new forms of symbolic exclusion grounded in cultural and media capital. Likewise, sustainability appears as an ambivalent construct: while advocating ethical and social responsibility, it frequently operates as a marker of moral and economic distinction. Nevertheless, circular, decolonial, and inclusive fashion initiatives open alternative pathways to rethink the relationship between fashion, consumption, and social justice. The study concludes that, although fashion still functions as a mechanism of symbolic power, it holds the potential to evolve into a field of cultural redistribution and the pursuit of aesthetic and material equality.
Ayoub, M. (2025). The sociology of fashion: Identity, class and consumerism. Arts and Social Sciences Journal, 16(3), 110.
Beard, N. D. (2008). The branding of ethical fashion and the consumer: A luxury paradox. Fashion Theory, 12(4), 447–468.
Bick, R., Halsey, E., & Ekenga, C. C. (2018). The global environmental injustice of fast fashion. Environmental Health, 17, 92. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-018-0433-7
Black, S. (2020). Eco-Chic: The Fashion Paradox. Black Dog Publishing.
Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. Les Éditions de Minuit.
Calvi, G., Panzera, L., & Rossi, L. (2024). Sumptuary laws, gender and public dressing in early modern Genoa. Annali di Storia dell’urbanistica, 5, 124.
Crane, D. (2000). Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing. University of Chicago Press.
Davis, F. (1992). Fashion, Culture, and Identity. University of Chicago Press.
Desierto, D., & Koyama, M. (2020). The political economy of status competition: Sumptuary laws in preindustrial Europe. https://desireedesierto.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/sumptuary_12.pdf
Entwistle, J. (2000). The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory. Polity Press.
Fletcher, K. (2014). Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys. Earthscan.
Fletcher, K. (2019). Craft of Use: Post-growth fashion and the challenge to consumption. Routledge.
Fu, X. (2021). Old clothes, new consumption: Exploring secondhand clothes consumption practice in the UK (Doctoral thesis). University of Sheffield. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/28065
Gardetti, M. Á., & Torres, A. (2013). Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles: Values, Design, Production and Consumption. Greenleaf.
Gill, R. (2016). Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 147–166.
Hethorn, J., & Ulasewicz, C. (2018). Sustainable Fashion: What's Next? A Conversation about Issues, Practices, and Possibilities. Fairchild.
Jansson, S. (2024). Dressed to Oppress: The Societal Implications of Online Fast Fashion Trends. Tilburg University. https://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=158701
Joy, A., Sherry, J. F., Venkatesh, A., Wang, J., & Chan, R. (2012). Fast fashion, sustainability, and luxury brands. Fashion Theory, 16(3), 273–295.
Jung, J., et al. (2016). Stratification and segmentation: Social class in consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 26(4), 583–593. DOI:10.1016/j.jcps.2016.02.003
Kawamura, Y. (2018). Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies. Bloomsbury Academic.
Kucher, I. (2024). Ordinary fashion consumption: Investigating the practices of clothing purchase, use and disposal in Danish and Ukrainian contexts. Fashion Highlight. https://doi.org/10.36253/fh2758
Lipovetsky, G. (1987). L’Empire de l’éphémère: La mode et son destin dans les sociétés modernes. Gallimard.
Masamba, M. (2024). The relationship between fashion and socioeconomic class. Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity. https://samuelduboiscookcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/5-7-24-masamba-final-poster.pdf
McNeil, P. (2017). Luxury: A Rich History. Oxford University Press.
Niinimäki, K. (2020). Sustainable Fashion in a Circular Economy. Aalto University Press.
Pan, X. (2023). The evolving role of class in choice of fashion in postmodern society. ESSS Humanities & Social Sciences, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v8i.4714
Pham, M. (2015). Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet: Race, Gender, and the Work of Personal Style Blogging. Duke University Press.
Potter, S. (2025). How conspicuous is fashion? A quantitative analysis of luxury discourse in Vogue and income inequality, 1910–2000. LSE Working Paper 045. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/129442/
Ragusa, P. (2023). Life-centered design: Bridging the gap between gendered clothing systems and institutional spaces. University of Arkansas. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/artuht/8
Rinaldi, F. (2019). Sustainable Luxury and Social Value: Towards a New Paradigm. Springer.
Rocamora, A. (2002). Fields of Fashion: Critical Insights into Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture. Journal of Consumer Culture, 2(3), 341–362.
Salah, T. (2021). Racial capitalism: How capitalism denies black bodies in the fashion industry. Fashion Theory.
Sare, B., et al. (2020). Oppressive curriculum: Sexist, racist, classist, and homophobic practice of dress codes in schooling.
Skov, L. (2020). Globalization and Fashion: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Routledge.
Thomas, D. (2020). Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes. Penguin Press.
Tyler, I., & Bennett, B. (2010). ‘Celebrity chav’: Fame, femininity and social class. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(3), 375–393.
Usunobun, A. (2024). Socioeconomic and psychological factors affecting clothing consumption among female undergraduates in Nigeria. Journal of Education and General Studies, 13(2), 48–57.
Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. Macmillan.
Villafuerte, N. (2019). Animal Fur Coats: A Symbol of Status or Stigma? California State University, Fullerton. https://thesis.fullerton.edu/handle/20.500.12680/9YEFCK3S
Wilson, E. (1985). Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. University of California Press.
Wissinger, E. (2015). This Year’s Model: Fashion, Media, and the Making of Glamour. New York University Press.
Wold, P., Thompson, D., & Berger, J. (2019). Trickle-round signals: When low status is mixed with high. Journal of Consumer Research, 46(5), 1005–1030. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucz042