Sociology of fashion: What would Luhmann say?

Fashion is often linked to fleeting trends and seasonal clothing changes, leading to its dismissal as socially insignificant. However, we argue that sociology must recognize the ‘in/out' difference as a key temporal dynamic shaping the functioning of various societal subsystems. We illustrate fashion's influence in three areas: the social sciences and humanities, the visual arts, and the clothing economy, emphasizing its varying degrees of impact. To clarify these differences and the broader logic of fashion, we draw on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory, where fashion operates as performative semantics in science, a secondary code in the arts, and a conditioning second code in the clothing industry. We also incorporate Pierre Bourdieu's field theory to analyze further fashion's role across domains and to offer small-scale empirical case studies of the functioning of the temporal logic of fashion in every subsystem. Our approach proposes a transversal yet open theory of fashion – anchored in social systems theory while fostering interdisciplinary connections. Additionally, we argue that fashion has gained increasing influence in several societal subsystems in recent decades. In hypermodernity, this intensification of ‘fashionability' – a heightened focus on the present through the in/out distinction – coexists with a countertrend of canonization, in which theories and artistic movements are ‘detemporalized' to attain lasting significance.