ABSTRACT
Over the course of the twentieth century, styles reliant on visibly used clothing rose in desirability. Secondhand clothing, once the sole province of the poor and marginalized, now fuels creative fashions across the world. In the context of continued but diminishing stigma, voluntary integration of used garments into stylish wardrobes grew to signify calculated rebellion. In America, a sartorial dialect of secondhand styles emerged and spread. Businesses grew from modestly charitable to multimillion-dollar global corporations, yet many consumers viewed secondhand clothes as exempt from the environmental costs and labor abuses of new production. Despite these assumptions, secondhand clothing retail is reliant on the same drive for novelty that shapes much of firsthand dress. Secondhand styles have served individuals’ expressions of varies gender and sexual identities, environmental prioritization, and economic and social defiance. Nonetheless, consumers who use resale to keep up with the rapid pace of expected acquisition are full participants in the fashion system. For at least 100 years, the sale and use of secondhand clothing has affected and reflected major political, cultural, and financial turns, from tiny turn-of-the-century Marches aux Puce stalls in Paris to the global mobile marketplace Depop.
