Second hand clothing.

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Second hand clothing A baling from past that highlights the cutting edge of the new fashion both in Europe and Africa

Sofia Vilarinho Faculty of architecture Lisbon

The movement of second-hand clothing (SHC) is gaining more and more visibility. Starting from an historical overview of trade, this article aims to examine various contexts in which it has developed, both in Europe (Lisbon) and in Africa (Maputo). Regarding clothing influence, the paper focuses in Western SHC’s to sharpen an understanding of Africa challenge, from 1980’s to nowadays, By stressing both cultural expressions Vintage vs. Chi-calamity as articulators of the “new” garment made by participative stories, dreams and meanings of personal neo-mod narratives, this article seeks to unveil the interweaving fashion-able map of the cosmopolitan cultural landscape both in Lisbon and Maputo.

Introduction Nowadays, second-hand clothing (SHC) is a mainstream movement bearing new identities replete of nostalgia and authenticity. These are two main characteristics that support the post-modern period, where there’s a fascination underlined by the emergent appeal for identity. Since 1980’s the SHC market is considered an international fashion phenomenon that promotes a subculture able to dialogue about the (re) valorization of styles: “Smelly old things have become highly desirable and fashionable (Palmer and Clark, 2005: 174). More recently, on the beginning of 21’scentury SHC identifies unique clothing practices by using a fashion grammar, made stronger by discourse on sustainability and “neo-mod self- image” desire (idem: 174). However, SHC is able not only to give new life to clothes, but also to bring forward memories and to beliefs that encourage trans-coding (Hall, 1997:270). Indeed it also engenders a dialectical and creative dialogue between uniqueness and innovation. Being increasingly a central element for the analysis of culture and history, SHC activates mechanisms of identity; inclusion and exclusion dictated by contemporary fashion projects, but at national and global scale. Fashion and anti-fashion, secondhand clothing, “has become the raw material of new fashion” (Palmer and Clark, 2005: 4). Whereas in Western urban cultural milieus SHC is associated with vintage, style, political attitude and ethics, in the developing world it has become one of the most significant items in the global textile trade - the "detritus of a culture” being off-loaded onto the poorest nations (Palmer and Clark, 2005: 3), expression of the antinomy ”West vs. rest” (Allman, 2004: 2).


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