Modern fashion is articulated around certain new industries that might seem to have little in common. This chapter highlights technological progress and its own endless stylistic reversals or revolutions notwithstanding, fashion has not escaped what might be called a long-term structure. To the extent that haute couture can be described as an unrivalled laboratory for novelty, the hundred years' fashion was essentially synonymous with feminine fashion. Compared to couture fashion, masculine fashion could be characterized as slow, moderate, steady, "egalitarian," even if it was also articulated according to the opposition between made-to-order and ready-to-wear. The democratization of fashion was accompanied by a disunification of feminine appearance: women's dress became much more varied in form, much less homogeneous. The democratization of appearance was matched by the extension and eventual generalization of a desire for fashion, a desire confined to the privileged strata of society.