ABSTRACT
The notion of fashion will further be applied with reference to mechanisms of social change, which display the following characteristics:
they may concern goods, ideas or attitudes, contributing to cultural transmission of meanings (this assumes a wide definition of fashion, related to all spheres of social and cultural life, including art, music, architecture, design and nutrition – comp. Jachnis, Terelak 1998: 366),
they are relatively inconstant and arise as short-lasting fascinations (with distinctive dynamics of initial growth and subsequent decline of the popularity of goods, ideas or attitudes),
they presume the existence of initiators (fashion setters) and followers, whose imitative behaviors constitute the fashion (Lalo 1980: 196); the imitators derive satisfaction from their homogeneity and conformity to the external standards.
