both indicative of expense, are the main drivers of fashion change. Each social class imitates the consumption behaviour of the class above it in order to enhance their social status. When applied to fashion, this theory states that when the lowest social class, or simply a perceived lower social class, adopts the fashion, it is no longer desirable to the leaders in the highest social class. The theory has been associated with later trickle-down theories as importantly, Veblen also observed that the upper classes found more extravagant ways of exercising conspicuous consumption in order to differentiate themselves from the class imitating their original consumption behaviour. Fallers Lloyd A. Fallers of the East African Institute of Social Research put forth this hypothesis in 1954: The trickle effect is a mechanism for maintaining the motivation to strive for social success, and hence for maintaining efficiency of performance in occupational roles, in a system in which differential success is possible for only a few. Status-symbolic consumption goods trickle down, thus giving the "illusion" of success to those who fail to achieve differential success in the opportunity and status pyramid. From this point of view the trickle effect becomes a "treadmill". In a society experiencing social and economic progress, "...the entire population has been upwardly mobile. From this point of view, the status-symbolic goods and services do not 'trickle down' but rather remain in fixed positions; the population moves up through the hierarchy of status-symbolic consumption patterns." McCracken In his book Culture and Consumption (1990), Grant McCracken aims to rehabilitate the trickle-down theory by expanding it for modern day application and use in the study of contemporary fashion. He adapts the theory to include groups that assume superordinate and subordinate roles in the modern trickle-down process but are not necessarily defined in terms of social strata. He includes other demographics such as gender, age and ethnicity. McCracken also acknowledges that the trickle down effect does not necessitate the appropriation of style but that the group can selectively borrow aspects of fashion, maintaining some of its own qualities. He also accounts for the influence of distribution, investors and location in relation to the trickle-down effect. The trickle-down theory in fashion The trickle-down theory has long been identified as a central principle of explanation for the historical study of fashion and its sociological implications. When applied to fashion, the theory states that a style is first