Captain Outrageous, Marx and Engels

Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y'know, it's just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y'know, I'm still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff."
(Devil Wears Prada)

I feel this quote directly relates to Marx and Engels concept of the ruling class and production. They describe that the ruling class is the class that dominates material production thereby dominating mental production. The individuals who make up the ruling class rule as thinkers, producers of ideas and regulate the production and distribution of ideas. The fashion industry is just one example of this concept, though it is a good one. As can be seen in this quote, the ruling class (the designers) control the material production and therefore control the mental production (cerulean blue).

Furthermore, this quote elaborates the concept of the division of labor within a class- one part thinks, the other part recieves because they are too busy to come up with such ideas. In the fashion lens, the designers and corporations do the thinking, the consumers do the receiving and don't give much thought to it.

In my opinion, this poses a conundrum, fashion and otherwise. The non-thinking, non-controlling members of the class do nothing to absolve controlling ideologies. "I'm too busy to think about it, so let them handle it" is precisely the attitude that puts us in the control of others. So really, what room do we have to complain?