Fashion comes from the Latin modus: fashion, measure, moderation, and also fashion, in French façon, origin of fashion in English. The prefix mod- relates it to modernity, as Baudelaire wanted (the contingent, the transitory, the fugitive). Fashion and modern coincide in giving maximum relevance to the new, establishing a kind of neomania. This volume brings together texts that give an account of the importance and relevance of Moda, goddess of appearances, (Mallarmé), sister of Death (Leopardi). a lebensform, a way of life (Simmel), always semiotic (Barthes, Floch), which transforms the non-significant into the signifier (Lotman), which sniffs the current (Benjamin); texts by Proust, Rabelais, Balzac, Carlyle, Musil, Veblen, Baudrillard, Gombrich, Ortega ...