Yes? The point of applied mathematics is to understand if the same driving forces which cause clothing trends also govern other human behaviors, and to extract

Yes? The point of applied mathematics is to understand if the same driving forces which cause clothing trends also govern other human behaviors, and to extract out these commonalities (or what is "really important" about the events) to study in the abstract, as a mechanism free of context, so we can enhance our ability to understand these situations (as well as other situations with similar behaviors) and make accurate predictions of the future. That's the very basis of applied mathematics. Nor should fashion be discounted as a trivial human endeavor: it acts in several capacities, from providing some safety from the elements to appealing to our sense of aesthetics to behaving as social signaling mechanism. Understanding how humans deal with the confluence of these competing forces is hardly a trivial area of research in to human behavior. I'm curious, what exactly you're intending with a clearly out of context quote, seemingly trying to slight the study of fashion with it.