This book arose as a subject of my long-term ethnography, hailing from Columbia University’s Sociology Department all the way to London, Milan, Paris, and back. I discovered the topic while walking the National Retail Federation’s Big Show at the Javits Center in New York in 2010. My main scholarly interest was rather clear: a fascination with empirical worlds at the threshold of technology, creative cultural industries, and entrepreneurship. My goal while there was to search for innovations and unique developments in technology and culture, particularly in fields surrounding the fashion industry. In my ethnography notes post-NRF, I had feverishly scribbled: “the most difficult times often spot innovation. Retailers and technology companies are embracing the need for new technology, new paradigms, new culture…” e-commerce was the big tech hike. But, while companies of every industry embraced the migration of their businesses and brands online, the numerous fashion company representatives I sought out, were not particularly in on this memo. Meetings featuring fashion professionals discussed familiar topics: trend research, product design, development, and their further automation. The big reveal came in a flash (as these always tend to), during a meeting of trend experts in fashion, who seemed to offer to my attention more insight about fashion industry’s ritualism and conformity than they (or Merton himself) would have known: “Classic definition of fashion is a reflection of the society we live in”, one of these long-time industry experts intoned, “and society is so fractured that people in forecasting, manufacturing, merchandising, or selling haven’t yet understood that the old yardstick of mainstream mentality no longer works.

这本书是作为我长期民族志的一个主题而产生的，从哥伦比亚大学社会学系一直到伦敦、米兰、巴黎，甚至后来。2010年，我在纽约贾维茨中心（Javits Center）参加全国零售联合会（National Retail Federation）大型展会时发现了这个话题。我的主要学术兴趣是相当明确的：在技术、创意文化产业和企业家精神的门槛上对经验世界的迷恋。我的目标是在科技和文化领域寻求创新和独特的发展，特别是在时尚行业的领域。在NRF后的民族志笔记中，我狂热地写着：“最困难的时候往往会发现创新。零售商和科技公司正在接受对新技术、新模式、新文化的需求……”电子商务是科技的大增长。但是，虽然每个行业的公司都欢迎他们的业务和品牌在网上的迁移，但我所寻找的众多时尚公司代表并没有特别关注这份备忘录。由时尚专业人士参加的会议讨论了熟悉的话题：趋势研究、产品设计、开发及其进一步自动化。在一次时尚潮流专家的会议上，这一重大发现一闪而过（正如他们总是倾向于这样），他们似乎向我提供了更多关于时尚行业的仪式主义和从众性的见解，而他们（或默顿本人）所知不多：“时尚的经典定义是我们所处社会的反映”，其中一位长期从事行业研究的专家这样说道：“社会是如此的分裂，以至于从事预测、制造、销售或销售的人还不明白，主流心态的旧标准已经行不通了。