Old Clothes, New Looks: Second-Hand Fashion / Edition 1

by Hazel Clark, Alexandra Palmer, Joanne B. Eicher

Overview

Recent interest in 'vintage' and second hand clothes by both fashion consumers and designers is only the latest manifestation of a long and complex cultural history of wearing and trading second hand clothes. With its origins in necessity, the passing of clothes between social and economic groups is now a global business, but with roots that are centuries old. To move from one social and cultural situation to another used clothes must be 'transformed' to become of potential value to a new social group. How, when and why this has happened is the subject of this book. Old Clothes, New Looks presents a three-part focus on the history, the trading culture, and the contemporary refashioning of second hand clothing. Historical perspectives include studies located in Renaissance Florence, early industrial England, colonial Australia, and mid twentieth-century Ireland. The global nature of the second hand trade in clothing is presented through original research from Zambia, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan. The reuse of garments as contemporary fashion statements is explored through studies that include neo-mod retro-sixties subculture in Germany, the impact of 'vintage' in the USA on consumers and designers, as well as consideration of its sartorial and cultural challenges, encapsulated by the work of designer XULY.Bet. This groundbreaking book will be essential reading for all those interested in fashion and dress, material culture, consumption and anthropology, as well as to dealers, collectors and wearers of second hand clothes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859738528
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
Publication date:	11/01/2004
Series:	Dress, Body, Culture
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Alexandra Palmer is the Nora E. Vaughan Fashion Costume Curator, in the Textile and Costume Section at the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada. She is also adjunct faculty in the Graduate Programme in Art History, York University.

Hazel Clark is Chair, Department of Critical Studies, Parsons School of Design.

Table of Contents

Introduction—Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark * Historical Practices * Introduction—Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark * The Florentine "Rigattieri": Second-Hand Clothing Dealers and the Circulation of Goods in the Renaissance—Carole Collier Frick * Shifting Currency: The Culture and Economy of the Second-Hand Trade in England, c. 1600-1850—Beverly Lemire * Cast Offs—Margot Riley * Second-Hand Silk Kimono Migrating Across Borders—Terry Satsuki Milhaupt * Parcels from America: Duty and Necessity, Pleasure and Imagining—Hilary O'Kelly * Trading Cultures * Introduction—Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark * Crafting Appearance: The Second-Hand Trade and Dress Practices in Zambia—Karen Tranberg Hansen * Creative Entrepreneurs: The Recycling of Second-Hand Indian Clothing—Lucy Norris * "Ukay-Ukay" Chic: (Re)Fashioning Second-Hand Clothing in the Philippine Cordillera—Lynne Milgram * Second-Hand Fashion, Culture and Identity: Hong Kong 1990s—Hazel Clark * Contemporary Re-fashioning * Introduction—Alexandra Palmer and Hazel Clark * Sixties Dress Only! The Consumption of the Past in a Youth Cultural Retro-Scene—Heike Jenns * Working the Edge: XULY Bet's Recycled Clothing—Victoria Rovine * Vintage Whores and Vintage Virgins: Second-Hand Fashion in the 21st Century—Alexandra Palmer