Old Clothes, New Looks Second-Hand Fashion

Second-hand fashion has a history as old as the production of clothing itself, but until recently it was given little consideration. Used clothes represent the largest numbers of existing garments but until recently they were not perceived as serious fashion items. However, this has changed dramatically with the rise of vintage web sites, value clothing chains, and the fashion media's perpetuation of the idea that secondhand clothes can be recycled into avant-garde "cool". This book not only shows how important used clothing has become but also what role it plays in culture and history. The Japanese, for example, traditionally salvage sections of kimonos, while in India garments are inexhaustibly recycled. This cross-cultural and historical perspective fills a major gap by offering fresh insights into the innovative use of secondhand dress and age-old traditions of recycling fashion.

Alexandra Palmer is the Nora E. Vaughan Fashion Costume Curator, in the Textile and Costume Section at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto. Hazel Clark is Chair, Department of Critical Studies, Parsons School of Design.