From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies
2018; Oxford University Press; Volume: 105; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/jahist/jay127
ISSN1945-2314
Autores Tópico(s)Art History and Market Analysis
ResumoMost discussions of fashion focus on styles aimed at upper-class or upper-middle-class consumers. Fashionable clothes are usually expensive and intended to project an image of their wearer's elevated social position. Instead, Jennifer Le Zotte provides an extensive analysis of secondhand clothing and its history in America, including its sellers and its consumers. Le Zotte argues that secondhand clothes are not only a means for those with limited resources to acquire clothing but also a way to make social statements that express resistance to the dominant culture. Secondhand clothing has performed an important role in avant-garde artistic cultures, such as Dada and surrealism. Artists in these cultures viewed flea markets and junk shops as sources of artistic stimulation. Rebellious youth have developed their own styles from secondhand clothes, some of which have been adopted by their elders. Le Zotte argues that, for example, “grunge dress with its widespread accessibility, gender-role deviance, cross-class identification, and ironic inflections, referenced a century of secondhand exchange” (p. 3).
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