Trade and Transformations of Secondhand Clothing: Introduction

Abstract

This article draws out some of the broader themes arising from the study of secondhand clothing economies, as an introduction to this special issue. The articles in the issue address worn clothing markets and recycling technologies from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, charting the expansion of the trade from relative scarcity in the longue durée to the current global industry dealing in millions of tons of used clothing. The used clothing economy brings into one frame the links between the market, materiality and morals, revealing complex connections as gifts of clothing are commodified by charities in the Global North, sold onto the international market, and become a resource for developing local livelihoods in the Global South. The heterogeneity of materials and the temporalities of fashion cycles and disposal strategies create a variable supply of unknown quality and quantity, for which differential markets must be developed, yet more work needs to be done to understand where the maximum value is extracted, and how this might be measured; issues of reciprocity, power and inequality are implicated at each stage. This article suggests that the specificity of the secondhand clothing economy has much to offer contemporary theoretical concerns with economization, marketization, and the convergence of economic value with cultural values.

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