Hazel Clark and Alexandra Palmer (eds.)

Old Clothes, New Looks: Second Hand Fashion

The growth of interest in vintage and secondhand clothes among both fashion designers and consumers is only the latest manifestation of a long and complex cultural history of wearing and trading used clothes. A practice that emerged centuries ago out of necessity, the passing of clothes between social and economic groups is now a global business. This trade requires that used clothes be "transformed" into something of potential value to a new social group. How, when, and why this happened is the subject of this book. Old Clothes, New Looks discusses the history and contemporary refashioning of secondhand clothing and the trading culture around it. The authors examine the history of the trade through studies of Renaissance Florence, early industrial England, colonial Australia, and mid-20th-century Ireland. They explore the trade in secondhand clothing as a global phenomenon through original research from Zambia, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan. They investigate the reuse of garments as contemporary fashion statements through studies of the neo-mod retro-1960s subculture that has emerged in Germany and the impact of "vintage" on consumers and designers in the United States and the sartorial and cultural challenges it poses, encapsulated in the work of designer XULY.Bet. This groundbreaking book is essential reading for those interested in fashion and dress, material culture, consumption, and anthropology as well as dealers, collectors, and wearers of secondhand clothes. View this publication.