At first sight there seems to be no relation between Romanticism and the concept of fashion. Nevertheless the anthropological perspective on fashion has been reflected in the discussions during the “Goethe-era”. It also seems to be an interesting coincidence that the emergence of fashion-magazines happens at roughly the same time as romanticism in literature and philosophy appears. And further this historical period is the cradle of modern life starting out with the first forms of industrialization, democratic ideas and development of the middle classes, the so-called “Bürgertum”. Some of the most important concepts of modernity were reflected in romantic thinking, such as ‘labour’, ‘Bildung’ and ‘production’. These modern concepts together with the paradigm of economics and the free market evolved around 1800 and are in a crisis today. Romanticism took a critical stance toward the economic as leading paradigm in socitey, which might be worth recalling today. Although fashion was not an urgent topic amongst romantic writers, the historical coincidence of romanticism and the flourishing discussion about fashion is worth a second look.
To begin with I will have a look at the relation of fashion and economics, because fashion and romanticism are linked by economics. The second topic that also works as a conceptual link is art. The idea that art becomes selfreferential and universalistic (transcendental poetry) is a thought central to romantic thinking. This is the birthplace of the modern notion of literature (see Behler). I attempt to show how these ideas could be applied to fashion and consequently how a modern concept of fashion is developed around 1800. In the second part of this paper I will outline one central aspect of the modern concept of fashion: temporality. There are two different aspects of temporality of fashion, which I will discuss. First: Temporality as a necessary condition of the concept of fashion. An second: The development of the temporality itself in the last 200 years. The result of this process bears the traces of its origins – the romantic concept of irony returns within fashion-making of the last 30 years. This is what I attempt to show in the closing section of this paper.