Only a fool would not judge by appearances. It is hard to take fashion seriously. Since fashion is always about markets and products, the dark side of fashion is its function as a commodity fetish. Texts like Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho , and Tama Janowitz's Slaves of New York will speak to the relationship between fetish, fashion and violence. Next, we will look at the display markets of fashion, department stores and shopping malls in works like Zola's Ladies Paradise .
Films also function as displays of fashion.
But some recent films now expose the mechanisms of systems, which produce fashion - the fashion industry. The theme of masks and disguise will continue with Jeanette Winterson's The Passion . Their fantasies would tell me more about future humanity than all the philosophers, the novelists, the preachers, or the scientists. Body-manipulators and mad shoppers portrayed in these books will show us hints of this new world. Angela Carter's texts will allow us to see new skin-costumes made of old bodies in The Infernal Desire Machine of Doctor Hoffman and Nights at the Circus .