fashion in a kantian sense is an aesthetic phenomenon and source of pleasure. for kant, the function of fashion was merely a means of social distinction, and he excluded fashion from pure aesthetics because of its content's arbitrary nature. simmel, following kantian thought, recognises the usefulness of fashionable objects in its social context. for him, the function lies in the whole fashion pattern, and cannot be attributed to any single object. fashion, for simmel, is a tool of individuation, social distinction, and even class distinction, which are neither utilitarian or aesthetical criteria. still, both kant and simmel agreed that staying out of fashion would be pointless.