Fashion may be widely known as the 'child of capitalism', but to fully grasp how and why, we must return to the birth of the fashion economy in the 19th century. Using Karl Marx's discussion of the frock coat - a bourgeois menswear staple - as a focal point, this book examines the philosophies of clothing that began taking shape in art, literature and politics in capitalist 19th-century Europe and America. Telling the story of fashion and capitalism...