This study deals with consumption and production of §women s outerwear in Britain, drawing on the dynamic §notion of fashion , as a social process of demand §formation and as a commodifying process of §innovation and diffusion. It aims to account for §continuities and changes in consumer tastes and §producer strategies, in the context of increasing §affluence and globalisation since the 1950s. §§The central argument is that the development of the §economy expanded the range of lifestyle options, in §terms of consumption, employment and conjugal §relationships, but due to the interdependent nature §of consumer preference, choices became increasingly §contagious and prone to cyclical obsolescence. This, §in turn, continued to fuel commercial competition in §the market and material abundance in the society. §Women s outerwear provides a representative case for §my inquiry into mass consumer society in twentieth-§century Britain. Skryť popis