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Alexandra Palmer
Berg Publishers

Old Clothes, New Looks: Second Hand Fashion

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AuthorAlexandra Palmer
PublisherBerg Publishers
PublishedFeb 08 2013
Book FormatPaperback
ISBN-139781859738573
Dimensions9.16 X 6.28 X 0.51 inches
Weight 1.05 pounds
BISAC
CategoriesDesign > Fashion & Accessories
LanguageEnglish

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Book Description

Recent interest in 'vintage' and second hand clothes by both fashion consumers and designers is only the latest manifestation of a long and complex cultural history of wearing and trading second hand clothes. With its origins in necessity, the passing of clothes between social and economic groups is now a global business, but with roots that are centuries old. To move from one social and cultural situation to another used clothes must be 'transformed' to become of potential value to a new social group. How, when and why this has happened is the subject of this book. Old Clothes, New Looks presents a three-part focus on the history, the trading culture, and the contemporary refashioning of second hand clothing. Historical perspectives include studies located in Renaissance Florence, early industrial England, colonial Australia, and mid twentieth-century Ireland. The global nature of the second hand trade in clothing is presented through original research from Zambia, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan. The reuse of garments as contemporary fashion statements is explored through studies that include neo-mod retro-sixties subculture in Germany, the impact of 'vintage' in the USA on consumers and designers, as well as consideration of its sartorial and cultural challenges, encapsulated by the work of designer XULY.Bet. This groundbreaking book will be essential reading for all those interested in fashion and dress, material culture, consumption and anthropology, as well as to dealers, collectors and wearers of second hand clothes.

Author Bio

Alexandra Palmer is the Nora E. Vaughan Fashion Costume Senior Curator and Chair of the Veronika Gervers Research Fellowship in Textiles & Costume at the ROM, and a Co-curator of BIG, the latest exhibit in the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume. She is cross appointed and teaches in Fine Art History at the University of Toronto, and the Graduate Programme in Art History at York University, and the School of Graduate Studies at Ryerson University.

A Canadian born in Greece and raised in England, Alexandra received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Toronto, her M.A. in the History of Costume & Textiles from New York University in conjunction with the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum and her PhD in Design History from the University of Brighton.

Before she came to the ROM in 1997 she was Assistant Professor for Craft and Design History at Nova Scotia College of Art. At the ROM she has curated Measure for Measure (1989) in the Samuel European Galleries, Au Courant: Contemporary Canadian Fashion (1997) and Papiers à la Mode for The Institute of Contemporary Culture (2001), as well as Unveiling the Textiles & Costume Collection (spring 2002) , Elite Elegance: Couture in the Feminine Fifties (November 2002- spring 2003) and the exhibits in the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume since it opened in 2007.

Education

B.A., Art History, University of Toronto, 1979
M.A., History of Costume and Textiles (in conjunction with the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), New York University, 1981
Ph.D., Design History, University of Brighton, England, 1995

Source: University of Toronto

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