Capitalism’s Favourite Child. Towards an International Business History of Fashion.
On 2 November 2018 Ben Wubs delivered his inaugural address at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and explored his ideas regarding his endowed chair International Business History and the role fashion plays and has played as a global industry. Fashion could serve as a prism through which to view business history. It could also contribute to a revival of business history and make it a vibrant discipline again. Fashion is a lens through which to look at the world and offers the possibility of new debates, interdisciplinary research and education. Fashion presents itself as a glamorous industry, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Underneath, there is sweat, exploitation, pollution, secrecy and a massive obsolescence industry, namely a constant drive to make existing forms look outdated and to create new forms or novelties. At the same time, the fashion industry consists of businesses, big or small, that in the end have to make a profit, or at least break-even, and behave as rationally or irrationally as any other business. “Fashion is capitalism’s favourite child, she sprung from its deepest being, and shows its specificity like hardly any other social phenomenon of our time”, wrote the German economist Werner Sombart in 1902. According to Sombart, fashion is an instrument that industry wields to mobilize consumption. It is a capitalistic phenomenon used by entrepreneurs to increase sales and profits. Fashion, which influences ever more sectors of economic life, constantly produces innovation, obsolescence, more innovation and further obsolescence. As a result, it has become one of the drivers of modern capitalism. Following Sombart’s logic, fashion is at the heart of our economic system. It is only recently, however, that scholars have started to study fashion as a major economic and business activity. This chair aims to contribute to this innovative research perspective.
