ABSTRACT
A more sustained psychoanalytic account of fashion is provided by J. C. Flugel in his book, The Psychology of Clothes, published in 1930. Further into the book Flugel talks more specifically about fashion, and its emergence during the Renaissance out of the collapse of the European feudal system. Flugel's idea that, "in a rigid hierarchy fashion is impossible" is obviously deeply appealing to fashion's apologists. This myth of the birth of fashion has been repeated endlessly by clothing historians keen to represent fashion as a benign force. Flugel was an advocate of clothing reform. He believed that much could and should be done to make clothing more comfortable, attractive and affordable. Although shopping for fashion has been dubbed retail therapy, as if acquiring new clothes will have a tempering effect on the psyche, it can also be linked to a profound anxiety.
