The literature contains numerous observations and de-scriptions of fashion trends. These descriptions represent the key phenomena that should be explainable by any conceptual framework and/or mathematical model of the fashion process. This section summarizes the key as-pects of those descriptions. 

 

Continuity in fashion trends. The styles adopted within a society as a whole tend to have attributes that are only incrementally different from the attributes of immedi-ately preceding styles (Blumer 1969; Carman 1966; Kroeber 1919; Richardson and Kroeber 1940; Robinson 1958, 1975, 1976; Sapir 1931; Sproles 1981; Weeden 1977; Young 1937). For example, the average skirt length of women's dresses has been found to exhibit relatively continuous cycles in the United States (Richardson and Kroeber 1940). 

 

Cyclical and classic fashion trends. The fashion lit-erature contains descriptions of two main types of fash-ion trends within a society. One is fashion trends wherein members of a society adopt styles that are progressively more extreme in one direction (e.g., shorter skirt lengths) and then, at later points in time, are progressively more extreme in the opposite direction (e.g., longer skirt lengths). Descriptions of these cyclical fashion trends are given by Barber and Lobel (1952), Blumer (1969), Car-man (1966), Grindereng (1967), and Reynolds (1968). However, the cyclical nature of this type of fashion trend is not regular in frequency or amplitude. At times, the "normal" cycle may be interrupted by a midcycle shift in direction (cf. Carman 1966) or the progression may speed up or slow down (Daniels 1951). 

 

The second type of fashion trend described in the lit-erature does not exhibit cyclicality except in the very long run (Sproles 1981; Wasson 1968). This type of fashion trend, termed a "classic," is a convergence within the society on the meaning of a symbolic item that is relatively stable over time. For example, the blue pin-striped suit has been a classic style over a fairly long period.