CONSUMER SOCIETY AND FASHION

Text topic: Studies

Text author: Љубомир Маширевић

The aim of this paper is to present the development of the consumer society between the late 19th century and today and to demonstrate the influence fashion has had on the entire process. The first part of the paper offers definitions and arguments concerning the very concept of consumer society. The second part of the paper demonstrates how development of the bourgeois society triggered the need for excessive consumption and all other accompanying social changes in the behaviour of consumers brought on by the new age. The conclusions of the paper involve an argument casting aside the viewpoint that it was actually consumerism that has brought on the democratisation of societies, as well as rejecting the idea that we make free choices when purchasing goods available on the market, while it proves we are under an enormous influence from the environments we originate from and also that our decisions are far from being spontaneous.