The Life, Death and Resurrection of Second Hand and Vintage Clothes in Amsterdam

Home , Noordermarkt, Vintage clothing

THE LIFE, DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF SECOND HAND AND VINTAGE CLOTHES IN AMSTERDAM.

An ethnographic account of the biography of clothes

Veronica Burneo Salazar 10714774

Master Social and Cultural Anthropology

Graduate School of Social Sciences

University of Amsterdam

Academic year 2014-2015

Word count 27,500

Supervisor: dhr. prof. dr. M.P.J. (Mattijs) van de Port

Readers: dr. M. (Milena) Veenis Ms A.B.F. (Anneke) Beerkens

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION

"Declaration: I have read and understood the University of Amsterdam plagiarism policy [published on http://www.student.uva.nl/fraude-plagiaat/voorkomen.cfm]. I declare that this assignment is entirely my own work, all sources have been properly acknowledged, and that I have not previously submitted this work, or any version of it, for assessment in any other paper."

VERONICA BURNEO, SEPTEMBER 11th 2015

Dedication

To Casimiro,

For crossing the Atlantic in my arms, something I would never have imagined even in my wildest dreams.

For never failing to make me smile and give me strength, every day for the last 2 years and 9 months.

To those incredibly inspiring, warm, lovable and hilarious beings called the Burneo Salazar family, which the universe generously assigned to me to be my family.

List of Contents

Cover 1

Title Page 2

Plagiarism Statement 3

Dedication 4

List of Contents 5

Acknowledgements 6

Introduction 7

Chapter 1: On becoming vintage: how this status is acquired by second hand 21 clothes.

Chapter 2: On being vintage or second hand: the life of clothes in the 29 vintage shops and second hand markets of Amsterdam.

Chapter 3: On being discarded, treasured or exchanged: the life of clothes 43 outside of the vintage and second hand commercial circuits.

General Conclusions 60

References 65

Annex 1: 300 Vintage Categories as described in Chapter 1 67

Acknowledgements

For Mattijs van de Port, for his guidance, patience an enthusiasm. I feel very lucky to have found a supervisor who appreciated my vision and motivated me to turn it into this thesis, teaching me not only how to write it, but how to enjoy the process.

For Kristine Krause, for her crucial role in the first part of this process, always giving her students all the tools and motivation to move on with our proposals.

For Corina, whose inexplicable, wonderful energy to make her thesis great while at the same time giving me and others the best feedback, still amazes me.

For Camiel, whose presence, constant support and love was an inspiration throughout all of this process.

Introduction

When doing the first exploratory approximations to the field, I was not expecting to find the huge industry of second hand clothing that exists in the Netherlands and Europe. The latter was probably influenced by the fact that in my home city, Quito1, there are no vintage shops and one can find only very few second hand markets. The most famous second hand market in Quito used to be a bull ring 70 years ago, and then became a place “where one could find from a needle to an elephant”2 Nowadays, most of the market vendors in Plaza Arenas are middle-aged single or divorced women from low socioeconomic status who are the heads of their families, thus responsible for providing a living for their kids. On the other hand, the Plaza Arenas once had a reputation for selling stolen goods, and some people would go there to check if their recently stolen cell phone or camera, for example, was being sold there. I have borne witness that people actually have found stolen goods there and had to buy them back from the thieves. However, at the moment things at the market have become much more institutionalized and many vendors are paying taxes and the shoppers are getting invoices for their purchases. It was hard to imagine that happening in Plaza Arenas years ago, since the retailing of second hand items was always considered part of the informal work sector, with market vendors not being able to access employment rights and sometimes being caught in criminal networks which stole and then sold things in this market. As for the second hand shops, there are only a few in the city that are run by the wives of diplomats as a charity project. Needless to say that the people going there do not see it exactly as a dream shopping trip, but rather as the only way to buy the things that they need. Hence, there is a stigma attached to second hand objects and especially, to second hand clothes because it is something that is regarded as used only by “poor” people. There are no vintage clothing stores in Quito, and the reasons for that might be connected to that stigma.

This extremely brief description of Quito’s second hand clothing outlets is a testament to the volatility of certain meanings, practices and ideas attached to objects and how we use them. A piece of clothing that is considered ‘hip’ and fashionable on one side of the world, might travel to the other side and be seen as something closer to garbage. In a way, I have followed these particular objects from Quito to Amsterdam. I have appreciated them with a particular lens when I was in Ecuador, and as I changed my place in the world and moved to Amsterdam, I have found them here again, transformed into a completely different thing. This thesis is about that transformation, the many stories connected to it and my efforts to understand the ’life’ of second hand clothes in a different context, in Amsterdam.

1 Capital of Ecuador. 2 http://www.ppelverdadero.com.ec/especial/item/se-encuentra-desde-un-alfiler-hasta-un-elefante.html

The big picture.

Tranberg Hansen (2004) argues that there are a variety of practices related to second hand clothes in Western and non-Western countries, with the latter receiving a vast amount of clothes from western countries which are crucial as a local clothing source, and the former having niche markets for these items (2004: 385).

Back to the Netherlands, the import and export of second hand clothing has always been a big deal. Trangberg Hansen (2000) explains how the second hand clothing industry has been functioning before and after the nineteenth century in Europe and globally. Until the nineteen century in Europe, used clothes were considered “fashionable clothing”. After that, in the first half of the twentieth century, it was distributed mostly to/by charity organizations.

But in the 1970s and 1980s, some second hand stores transformed into specialized places with “exclusive” and unique items (Tranberg Hansen 2000: 248-249.) It is interesting to point out that by the first half of the eighteenth century “The Netherlands and London were centers for the wholesale trade in used clothes” (Tranberg Hansen 2000: 249). The latter has not changed much, with The Netherlands being the third largest worldwide second hand exporter in the world3. At the same time it was by the turn of the century one of the biggest importers in Europe, followed by Belgium, Luxembourg and England (Tranberg Hansen 2000: 251), which proves that there is a significant local demand for these items. Along similar lines, McMeekin (2007) and Wilson & Thorpe (2000) (as cited by McColl, Canning, McBride, Nobbs and Shearer 2013), claim that second hand clothes considered vintage have become a “multimillion pound industry” which might be surprising to some people since second hand clothes have always been viewed as commodities purchased by budget consumers.

Those stores “with unique and exclusive items”, have been called since the 80’s in Amsterdam “vintage shops”. I argue that the category of “vintage” is crucial to understand the mechanisms associated to the distribution of second hand clothes globally, and to the ways they are classified also at a smaller scale by the second hand and vintage clothes enthusiasts. At this point, it is important to clarify the difference between second hand and vintage, even when in my opinion such difference never seems to be completely clear.

Vintage clothes are most of the times second hand clothes, but when they have been categorized as vintage, their status among second hand clothes changes, their value is greater. Even so, there is no such thing as a single way to understanding and describing what vintage clothes are, as this concept is relatively new. There is a certain consensus about the paucity of literature on the concept of vintage (McColl et al. 2013; DeLong, Heinemann and

3An industry worth 1.410 million dollars in 1995 (UN 1996 as cited by Tranberg Hansen.)

Reiley 2005; Downing Peters 2014), however, there seems to be an agreement about the massive popularity of clothes and objects that are described as “vintage” in the western world.

The term vintage originally means a “good grape crop of wine of a specific region or year” (DeLong et al. 2005: 23), or in a slightly different way a “season’s yield of grapes or wine from a vineyard” (Downing Peters 2014: 218). Among the tons of second hand clothes in Amsterdam that are either put in recycling bins, in the garbage or given to market vendors by random people, there is a group of clothes that are not considered only second hand or used. Those clothes are vintage and are hunted by retailers, shoppers and big vintage distributors through a process in which a very specific, almost professional knowledge about fashion is circulating. There is a revaluation process taking place with those clothes, in which vintage connoisseurs learn to recognize brands, materials, shapes and qualities that are supposed to have only existed in previous eras. Some of those brands, materials, shapes and qualities are considered iconic to fashion and to their particular era. Amid those involved in the vintage clothing industry, there is no agreement as to which eras should already be labeled as vintage.

Some scholars have made an effort to come up with a definition of the concept of vintage. Downing Peters (2014) argues that the key aspect to this is how this concept is constructed and performed by the retailers (which she calls “vintage curators”) and the vintage buyers “through performances of mutual understanding, exchanges of highly specialized knowledge and community building” (2014: 215). Her research was done in a vintage flea market in New York, where her focus was on those interactions and how they stimulate the circulation of this knowledge. The author argues that without a community of actors actively triggering a “vintage sensibility” these objects would be just second hand. Hence, it is a contingent category (2014: 235). DeLong et al. (2005) also believe that the involvement in the revaluation and change of status of clothes is the fundamental aspect of wearing vintage, “and only secondarily about markets for resale of clothing.” (2005: 23). They also mention a ‘shift’ in which flea markets and thrift stores “were elevated to becoming acceptable sources of fashion” and the stigma of wearing used clothes decreased. After this, “a differentiation between vintage and used clothing followed” (2005: 25.) Even when the authors do not include an explanation about the reasons to this shift, they stress its key role to the huge change in the perceptions about using second hand or recycled clothes (2005: 25). In the meantime, McColl, Canning, McBride, Nobs and Shearer (2013) have defined vintage in terms of three dimensions: the age of clothing, the style and the quality. During their research with vintage retailers, the participants did not come up with a unified description (2013:145). JenB (as cited by Venstra and Kuipers 2013: 356.), defines vintage as “a construction of past images and historic looks which can be achieved with original objects as well as with new ones that look historic.” Therefore, it does not necessarily account for only second hand clothing (some vintage clothing is new), but its style always evokes older, past

9 fashion styles. Tranberg Hansen (2000) adds other practices related to second hand and vintage shopping, like re-sales for designer clothes, where the clothes are perceived as art. She also describes thrift shopping “as a past-time activity for vintage connoisseurs on the look for rare finds” (Tranberg Hansen 2000: 250.)

Another relevant issue is what DeLong et al. (2005) argues is a “rebirth” taking place with second hand clothes when they are given the status of vintage, a process which occurs when they are moved from one setting to the other, changing their status this way. Because of the latter, in my opinion, these are not just regular clothes, these are clothes with a certain biography determined by their migration through different eras, places, bodies and meanings. And it is such trajectory that has puzzled me. In the same manner, I argue that besides all of the mentioned characteristics, the concept of vintage and second hand is constructed within the settings mentioned by DeLong et al. (2005), an approach that I will explain in the following part of this document.

I intend to use this research to focus on the different stages and phases that used clothes go through, which as stated before, in Amsterdam are determined to a large extent by their status as vintage or second hand. My research has not sought to clarify the concept of vintage, but to attempt to explain its effects on the changes that second hand clothes in Amsterdam go through. Having said that, it was important to clarify some of the most common definitions of the vintage concept.

Theoretical framework.

The study of clothes in Anthropology is not new, with fashion theory developing an important body of knowledge about the topic recently. However, there has been a tendency to analyse clothes more as “representing something else rather than something in its own right” (Tranberg Hansen 2004: 369). The shift to study clothes in the framework of the debates from material culture studies seems to have changed the latter, conceptualizing them as objects that are worth focusing on, as a ways to reveal the relations, meanings, practices and usages attached to them in a particular context, and as a fruitful method to also understand the implications of the latter. While my argument could take a number of turns in terms of theory and methodology, I would like to explore the theoretical and methodological possibilities of focusing on the materiality of second hand clothes through the metaphor of them having a ‘biography’, precisely to distance myself from an interpretation that might disregard their active role in social relations and in constantly shifting categories and concepts while they move in society. Because of the latter, my thesis is inscribed in the anthropological debates about the role of objects and the theoretical and methodological implications of doing research from this perspective.

The objects at the center

Hay lugares habitados por cosas maestras que desconocemos Eduardo Milan4

In this thesis there is a strong emphasis on the objects, and because of this, there has been an attempt to take distance from symbolic or semiotic explanations, in which clothes are generally analysed only as signs or symbols of what people are (Miller 2010: 12), and the methods used to do such analysis are mostly verbal and linguistic-based. To that end, I have chosen a theoretical framework that draws from the contributions from material culture studies, especially those from Daniel Miller (2002, 2005, 2010, 2011 and 2012) and his extensive research on clothing through which he has attempted to develop a theory of stuff (things).

Secondly, with the intention to observe the different changes of status of second hand clothes in Amsterdam, I have embraced Igor Kopytoff’s (1986)5 work about the cultural biography of things, an approach to things that emphasizes the importance of observing their transformation as they are produced, used and moved in different settings, in different contexts. What’s more, this author argues that one can construct the biography of a thing in a similar way that one would do the biography of a person, and this thesis is fundamentally about the biography of second hand clothes in the city of Amsterdam.

With this in mind, I argue that the framework of wardrobe studies (Grimstad Klepp & Bjerck 2012: 373) could be of great help in order to build up on the focus on clothes in the context of material studies, which means that this approach emphasizes the material element of clothes, as opposed to the symbolic, by analyzing how clothes relate to each other on the whole or in parts of a wardrobe (Grimstad Klepp & Bjerck 2012: 373). The 'setting' that would allow to embrace such approach is the material frame where the clothes are actually kept. However, this frame does not refer only to the physical limits of, for example, a closet. It has to do with an entire structure of different storage spaces with corresponding criteria for where and what clothes should be kept and how clothes should be moved between them (2012:375.) The concept of material frame of clothes will be of great importance in this document.

Also worth mentioning is the effort I have made to incorporate photography and the

4 In English: There are places inhabited by master things we don’t know of. Eduardo Milan. 5 It is important to mention that the work of Kopytoff was included in a collection of essays titled “The social life of things”, from Arjun Appadurai, which focused on the idea of “objects having a life” (Appadurai: 2006).

11 internet as places or material frames of clothes. Following Horst and Miller’s (2012) considerations about the internet as a new kind of place “rather than a form of placelessness”. Through the publications of the photographs and stories that resulted from my research in a blog designed for this purpose, this understanding of the internet as a new place for clothes has had significant implications in my way to tell their biography and to understand their materiality.

Additionally, even when on this thesis the concepts of fashion and style are not central, it cannot be denied that they are constantly present, influencing in many ways the places where second hand clothes circulate in the city. My use of the terms fashion and style has been informed by Eicher (2001), Tranberg Hansen (2004.) and again, Miller (2002, 2010, 2011.)

The theory of things

The best way to understand, convey and appreciate our humanity is through attention to our fundamental materiality. Daniel Miller, Stuff 2010

My understanding of the concept of an ‘object’ and what objects do, will follow Miller’s views on this topic. There are two key ideas from the work of this author that will be crucial for the argument of this thesis. Firstly, the acknowledgement of role of the objects and of the material world surrounding us in “making us”. Secondly, his critical approach to the Western separation of objects and people, which ignores how integral objects are to human actions.

Actually, Miller affirms that he tries to demolish (Miller 2010: 5) the idea that there is an obvious opposition between the person and the thing, the animate and the inanimate, the subject and the object. Through his analysis, he is trying to bring attention to what is on the outside in a position which criticizes the ideas that affirm that “materiality represents the merely apparent behind which lies that which is real” (Miller 2005). His intention is to challenge the opposition of the objects to the subjects, as a ways to give a certain agency to the former.

Moreover, Miller argues that things, which he also calls “stuff”, creates us. For that reason, it should not be regarded as only a “form of representation, a semiotic sign or a symbol of the person”. When referring to clothing, the author suggests to see it as an “active part in constituting the particular experience of the self, in determining what the self is” (2010:40).

In order to undertake that type of analysis, Miller first develops what he calls a “plausible and helpful theories of stuff”. By doing that, the author has attempted to pursuit a way to explain the relation between people and things in a radically different manner than the

12 theory of representation in which the role of things is always reduced to social relations (2010:48). Miller is critical to “approaches which view material culture as merely the semiotic representation of some bedrock of social relations” (2005: 4)

To him, material objects can be considered a setting which works most of the time in an invisible way (2010:50). With this in mind, he mentions Goffman’s Frame theory book where the latter emphasizes the importance of the frame “which constitutes the context of action” and adds a clear example of that: when something violent is happening to an actor in a theater play, the audience will not do anything because it is happening in the setting of the theater, and therefore the audience knows they ought to be there only observing, listening and clapping. There is a silent agreement as we take note, in a silent way, “of the place in which the action is set” (2005: 5). Would that violence happen in another place, the reactions would definitely be different. For Miller, this contribution from Goffman is the first theoretically relevant aspect of his theory of things.

The second is Gombrich and his views on art. According to Miller, the former puts also attention, like Goffman, in the frame. However, in his case he focuses on the frame in which artwork is placed, and how that frame’s presence is what actually causes a certain reaction towards art works, but it does this in a silent way. When the frame is appropriate (an art gallery, a museum) we do not really see it. On the other hand, to put art work in a certain places, also guarantees how much money we would pay for it, Miller argues. The latter will be developed further in this document, as when it comes to vintage clothing I also argue that the frame where it is set (a vintage shop, a second hand market, a charity shop or a closet) completely determines every aspect of those clothes status: price, value as a historical-fashion item, strategies deployed to find it, etc. On a similar tone, and through the similar approach of wardrobe studies, I will attempt to provide a detailed description of what Grimstad Klepp & Bjerck (2012) call the material frame of clothes.

Miller´s concept of the “humility of things” is also strongly influenced by the former authors. The latter means that objects work in a most effective way when we do not see them, when we are not even aware of their presence and yet they make us conscious of what is appropriate or inappropriate They determine what takes place to the extent that we are unconscious of their capacity to do so” (2010: 49, 2005: 5). Now, this invisible influence of things, which Millers calls “the blindingly obvious”, can only be accomplish because they become familiar to us and therefore we take them “for granted” (2010: 50). With the latter, Miller makes a reference to Bourdieu’s theory of practice and his observations about the role of certain objects in socialization processes, as “they become the primary means by which people are socialized as social beings (2005:6).

Similarly, Geller (as cited by Edwards and Hart 1998: 4) even goes as far as to argue that objects can be seen as social actors, in that it is not the meanings of things per se that are

13 important but their social effects as they construct and influence the field of social action in ways that would not have occurred if they did not exist. Edwards and Hart (2004) explain the issue brought up by Miller through the opposition of the animate and inanimate and its relation to the self, by arguing that objects are bridges between mental and physical worlds, as objects are not just settings for human actions and meanings but integral to them (Edwards and Hart 2004: 4.)

Interestingly, Miller suggests that such definition of things as having some sort of agency, is a direct attack to the dominating ideas about “the sacralised concept of agency as the essential and defining property of persons” which critique the applying of this concept to the non-human world (2005:11). Yet, it is not possible to understand the latter statement if we were to compare the agency of things and persons as one and the same thing, or even worse, things and persons as equivalent entities, because of course they are not. That is to say, our attention should be placed in the network of relations in which objects are involved and play a certain role. From the point of view of Miller, the effect of objects in the networks of relations in which people are involved should not be ignored. “Men do not fly, nor does a B52 bomber fly, but the US air force does”. (2005:12).

Along the same lines, Edwards criticizes certain ideas about objects as only passive entities in social processes, since in her opinion “objects are enmeshed in and active in social relations” (2002: 68) which should be observed on their mundane, everyday lives.

For Miller, there is a material world created before us and during our existence that we need to look as if it was a mirror, to really understand who we are. He states that this is our “material mirror” (2005: 8). The fact that this material world was created before us, and that certain meanings attached to things already existed before we were even born, is a crucial premise to understand when Miller argues that things “make us”. Furthermore, the author argues that there is a “system of things” with an internal order, which we learn through everyday routines in order to be who we are (2010: 53), an idea which again unquestionably still connected to Bourdieu’s theory of practice, as it was stated before and as Miller himself insists.

All things considered, I believe that this theoretical approach is consistent with my intention to put the objects at the center of my analysis, which in this case are the second hand clothes in Amsterdam. Nonetheless, I found that only a concept about what the object is and what it does, while fundamental as a theoretical point of departure and a central theory, could be strengthen in terms of methodologically account for the transformation of second hand clothes in different contexts, and places in the city. Because of the latter, I resorted to Kopytoff’s work about the cultural biography of things, taking the author’s metaphor as a way to show how the stories of objects and humans inform each other (Gosden and Marshall 1999). In the same manner, the methodological approach of wardrobe studies is

14 also extremely useful when trying to understand how these transformations take place in specific material frames.

How to tell the story of a thing

To us, a biography of a painting by Renoir that ends up in an incinerator is as tragic, in its way, as the biography of a person who ends up murdered. Igor Kopytoff. 1986.

When Kopytoff (1986) argues that one can construct the cultural biography of things in the same way as one does with the biography of persons, he is also inscribing his work in an area of thought similar to that of Miller. The latter means that they both are interested in the relationship between people and things. My approach to this author has been both theoretical and methodological, since his ideas about following these social transformations are quite precise in terms of the particular characteristics one should observe in these traveling objects. Needless to say, the latter does not mean that the author proposes an inflexible, thoughtless “check list” to reflect on these transformations, but his ideas have influenced my methodology in an important way.

Kopytoff agrees with Miller in criticizing the Western obsession with the opposition between things and people, however, he focuses on how things have always been placed in the universe of commodities, while people have always been connected to the universe of individuation and singularization (Kopytoff 1986: 64). Through the example of slavery, he explains how this division “is recent and culturally speaking, exceptional” and attempts to approach the concept of commodity with the example of slavery (1986: 64).

People were transformed into commodities in this period of history, but during their trajectory as slaves they changed that status in a process that he explains as a social transformation that involves a succession of phases (1986: 65). The social transformation of a slave occurred when he/she was sold first as a commodity, but afterwards, was inserted into a society, a group of slaves, or a family and then rehumanized. If sold again to a new 'owner', the person would be again perceived as a commodity. Hence, the slave was constantly acquiring different statuses throughout this whole process, which I should add, is not lineal. The succession of phases might repeat themselves in a circular way depending of the setting, and the social expectations surrounding the person.

Having said that, it is not the aim of the thesis to focus on the concept of commodity and explore the theories related to it. But with this in mind, when discussing Kopytoff’s text it is unavoidable and it should be noted that he is reflecting on the commoditization process of things. The latter does not imply that the use of his biographical approach on the specific topic of this document is not possible.

So, as it has been argued before, one of the characteristics of vintage and second hand clothing is their very particular trajectory, as they migrate from places, time, bodies and meanings in a way in which the cultural markers attached to them change constantly. Now, in the specific case of these items in Amsterdam, one has to wonder why such objects have been given the status of vintage at times, and 'only' second hand at others; why some of them are placed in shops and others are left lying on the floor of an open air market; why sometimes they are quite pricy and at others they are the cheapest clothing option. These are just a few examples of certain transformations.

Citing Margaret Mead, Kopytoff affirms that one can understand a society by trying to comprehend what “sort of biography it regards as embodying a successful social career. Clearly, what is seen as a well- lived life in an African society is different in outline from what would be pronounced as a well- lived life along the Ganges, or in Brittany or among the Eskimos. ” (1986: 66). In the construction of the biography of second hand and vintage clothes in Amsterdam, the previous statement is crucial to account for the expectations connected to these very particular objects, what would be considered a life well-lived in the case of a used piece of clothing? Agreeing with Kopytoff, I believe that this might be possible to observe in the movement of these objects.

For this author, several aspects of the ‘life’ of a thing might account for that ‘social career’ Mead was talking about, like the 'possibilities' and original status of the thing versus the actual realization of those possibilities and status. Also, the origin of the thing (explaining where does it comes from, who made it and description of the trajectory of the thing so far); the traces left in the thing from the ways in which it has been used, but also from the 'ages' and 'periods' in the thing's life. Finally, the 'death' of the thing: describing what happens when it is not going to be used in any way anymore (1986: 66-67). Interestingly, I have yet to observe the death of clothes in Amsterdam, but this issue will be discussed later on this document.

In her study about the materiality of photographs, Edwards (2002) says that “materiality is closely related to social biography”. While her field of study is closer to photography, she also sees the importance to material culture of observing objects in their “continuous processes of meaning, production, exchange and usage.” (2002: 68) and not only in a single point of their life.

Fashion and style, vintage and second hand clothing.

Even though this is not a study about fashion and style, these concepts are inevitably attached to clothes, therefore I would argue that it is important to briefly clarify them, which in this case will be done with the help of Clarke and Miller (2002) and Tranberg Hansen (2004). The former authors disagree with a description of fashion based only on the

16 commercial characteristics of it, with a focus on its system of production. They, on the other hand, view fashion as the result of much larger forces that not always coincide with what the fashion industry dictates, and by doing this, they challenge the ideas about the omnipresence and power of the fashion industry in people´s lives. Actually, Miller argues that there is evidence that people chose their clothes despite of what fashion industry determines (Miller 2010: 33.) Thus, there is a larger social context that determines clothing choices (Clarke and Miller 2002: 192.) Miller adds that fashion is a collective experience, the collective experience of following a trend. While style is more of an individual construction of an aesthetic based not just on what you wear, but on how you wear it. (Miller 2010: 15.) Even when I agree with the latter, fashion should also be regarded is a type of framework to understand contemporary dressing practices (Tranberg Hansen 2004: 371.) The specific knowledge about vintage and second hand clothing that the different actors of this ‘circuit’ share and circulate, might be explained, partly, by understanding their particular take on fashion and style.

Methodological framework

All clothes contain traces of the ways in which they have been used. Grimstad Klepp & Bjerck. 2012.

It has already been mentioned that the main goal of this thesis is to construct a biography of second hand clothes in Amsterdam, by following Kopytoff’s biographical approach to things. At the same time, there is an aim to focus on the materiality of the clothes, emphasizing their identity as ‘objects’ from the point of view of material culture studies, and specifically, Miller’s theory of things. The latter implies that I am recognizing the role of clothes in “making us” through their involvement in a network of relations in which their existence should not be ignored or approached only from a semiotic or symbolic standpoint.

In order to accomplish the latter, I have based my methodology not only on the previously cited authors, but also on Grimstad Klepp and Bjerck’s (2014) methodological approach to the materiality of clothing in which the point of departure is the recognition of the material as “active element in the practices” and not just a “carrier of different type of symbols”. This approach is called wardrobe studies. Firstly, the authors clarify that the term wardrobe can be taken literally or metaphorically. Secondly, they suggest one of two options to highlight the material instead of the symbolic, which are to either analyze the relation between the body and the clothes or to study the relationship between clothes “to other clothes within a greater whole (wardrobe) as a way to highlight the materiality of clothing”. The latter is what has been my focus on this research, together with what the authors have designated as ‘the material frame of clothes’, understood as “not only the physical walls of the closet, but also an entire structure of different storage spaces with corresponding criteria for where and what clothes should be kept and how clothes should be moved between them” (2014: 273).

Both arguments result in an emphasis on the places in which clothes are kept and the ways in which they are classified, organized, preserved and prioritized in a specific setting.

It should be noted though, that the concept of ‘wardrobe” in this particular methodological approach is not limited to the closet and in my research it has been broaden to clothing distribution companies, second hand markets, and vintage clothing stores. Through wardrobe studies, such material frame is analyzed in an 'inventory' type of way, and the individual items are compared to the larger material frame (2012: 365.) The issue of knowledge is also approached by these authors, who emphasis the methodological importance of analyzing what are the categories that determine how the items will be organized in a specific setting.

Another issue these authors remark is that of the registration of data when doing wardrobe studies. I would like to emphasis the latter, not only due to the challenge of doing research about things, but because of the incorporation of visual methods in this registration process. Photography has been a crucial part of the generation and registration of data on this research in order to observe and make visible certain issued that might not be found in interviews, participant observation and even the material frame analysis. Aside from the visual registration, these authors propose a methodology in which the observations from the material are combined with the explanations from the informants (2012: 381). The latter, nevertheless, possess some limitations when doing research, since the verbal statements have been at the center of methodology in Anthropology. , which has been also approached by Hirschaurer (2007) and his considerations about what he calls, the silence of the social. The author brings attention to what appears to be a linguistic bias, or the preference for linguistic primary data, that can only be obtained through interviews and participant observation (Hirschauer 2007: 415.) The challenge then is, to bring the attention also to what happens mutely, as a wordless, inarticulate, illiterate, process...to move the muteness to the center of ethnographic writing ((Hirschauer 2007: 415.) In my opinion, the latter can be accomplish, among other measures, by the use of photography in the research of things.

Approaching the visual from a materiality perspective

There is an interesting and undeniable connection between material culture and visual anthropology that I have embraced in order to emphasize the importance of the visual when doing research on clothes, but specifically in this case in which the clothes were at the center of the analyzes and their material frames needed to be described in a detailed way. I argue that two mediums have become crucial to study the latter: photography and the internet. On this document, both are seen as material frames of the clothes as well, in which the lives of these objects continue. As much as second hand clothes are ‘rebirthed’ constantly during their trajectory through the circuits of used clothes in Amsterdam, their

18 presence in photographs posted online can be viewed as yet another revival in which new interactions appear and give way to new meanings and practices motivated by the clothes.

According to Edwards (2002), the direct observation of objects from the point of view of material culture “allow us to question ingrained assumptions concerning the superiority of language over other forms of expression such as visual and material forms, and constitute the objects as important bridges between mental and physical worlds” (2002: 69).

Another key approach in this same direction comes from digital anthropology and its link to materiality (Horst and Miller: 2012), in which there is critique to those who grasp the digital world as “a new form of ephemerality” ignoring what Miller has called “the humility of things” and how we realize of the materiality of things once they fail, as it happens with technology. If our technological devices stop working, they can absolutely break us, revealing like that their materiality (2012: 104).

Visual methods: some considerations

I decided to incorporate visual methods on this research, specifically photography. However, in my opinion the use of such approach should have a clear intention within the whole theoretical and methodological framework. One of those intentions has been described in the previous section, with photography facilitating the visibility of things in ways that linguistic methods can only describe in a limited way. The second has to do with the possibility to include a participatory approach in anthropological research. This is why I have been positively surprised to find that there is an interesting debate about the potential of visual methods for participatory research and strengthening of the public side of Anthropology. The mentioned debates focus on the potential of visual methods and media in the production of a public Anthropology (Pink 2014: 437.) Nevertheless, there is yet another aspect that a public, visual Anthropology promotes a debate about and that is the expertise of Anthropologists. By doing the latter, the expertise of the anthropologists is debatable, thus reversing the conventional power relations that often typified fieldwork...in such collaborative, applied anthropology, expertise is always distributed and co/produced, never invested exclusively in one individual (...) (Pink 2014: 442.) The use of photography and internet as part of this research motivated a more active role of the ´informants´ in the way they have been represented and a minor yet thought-provoking exchange with fellow social scientists have proved to me the possibilities of what Pink has called a public Anthropology.

Main research question and methods.

The previous theoretical and methodological framework has been constructed in an attempt to answer to the question: How do clothing items transform as they migrate through the circuits of vintage and second hand clothing in Amsterdam?

This research was conducted in Amsterdam between January and March 2015 as a multi- sites fieldwork in a single city. To explore the biography of second hand clothes in Amsterdam, I followed these objects through different sites: vintage clothing distributors, second hand markets, vintage shops, people’s closets, clothing swap parties, a clothing swap shop and the Facebook pages specialized in second hand and vintage clothes in Amsterdam. The decision to focus on these places was taken based on what proved to be a sort of ´trajectory´ that the clothes were following in which these places played a crucial role.

I was able to establish a network of informants with whom I remained very close during my fieldwork and who each represent the different sites of the trajectory of second hand clothes in Amsterdam. My decision to start and deepen my relationship with this group of informants was related to my intention to understand how they influence the metamorphosis or transformation of these objects by recycling and distributing them to the vintage shops (informant: owner of a vintage clothing distribution company); purchasing them for their vintage shop (informants: 2 vintage shop owners) and selling them in open air markets (informants: 3 vendors in Waterlooplein and Noordermarkt). In the latter I worked as a voluntary assistant to the market vendors in charge of different tasks, from setting up and dismantle the stalls every day to helping with the sales and decoration. In the former places I mostly did participant observation and a series of interviews. I consider this group the “commercial group” because they are mostly involved in the second hand and vintage business in the city.

The second group of informants is more diverse and what they have in common is their role in the circulation of clothes in the city, even when compared to the first group, they do so at a micro level involving practices not related to a commercial interest. The group is formed by 4 vintage and second hand clients/consumers, a group of 6 friends attending a swap party, the coordinator of a swap shop and two women who regularly sell their second hand clothes on Facebook.

I spent most of my time with the mentioned groups of informants, but I also did observations and additional (structured and informal) interviews in several vintage and second hand shops, the Ij-Hallen monthly market, and with fashion designers and clients of the markets and shops.

All of the research process was photographed and the visual part of it (the pictures) uploaded to the blog created for this thesis: clothingtales.wordpress.com. During its time on the air, the blog received 1.328 visitors from different parts of the world, especially Ecuador.

Chapter 1

On becoming vintage: how this status is acquired by second hand clothes.

The place where second hand clothes are turned into vintage items: the warehouse

I went to a charity shop and bought a second hand black velvet jacket when I was 15 and went home absolutely happy about how cheap and unique it was. That second hand store where I got it was a charity project run by the wives of some diplomats from Europe and the United States. When I came home, I showed it to my mother, who forbid me to tell anyone that this was a used jacket; that would make her feel ashamed in front of her family and friends. Additionally, she did not like the thought of the jacket maybe having belonged to some dead person. She quickly proceeded to wash and disinfect it. I never stopped loving that jacket and brought it with me to Amsterdam, and it is there in my closet as it has been the case for many years.

Now, I am standing in the middle of this huge warehouse filled with second hand clothes. I had already heard stories about this place at the outskirts of Amsterdam where second hand clothes were classified to be later on distributed to vintage shops and markets in the city. The stories about rooms filled with cowboy boots and 60s clothes made me think of this place as a sort of a secret haven for vintage clothing enthusiasts, like myself. It really was.

P. is a Dutch man in his fifties, quite friendly, who obviously enjoys his job a lot. I called him6 and explained to him very briefly the details of my research project. He was immediately friendly and open, offering to pick me up the week after that from Schiphol airport to take me to his vintage clothing company. The access to the place was not too easy, as only one bus line was available to get there and it did not go very often.

We arrived at the company, and P. gave me a ‘tour’ of the huge warehouse where the whole organization and classification of the clothes takes place. The warehouse is divided in three big sections. In the first section, three men are standing on 3 platforms overlooking this part of the warehouse, which is filled with hundreds of plastic, see-through bags of about 1 meter high. The three men are picking up clothes from a bigger bag placed in front of them, touching them, analyzing every item which is afterwards placed in one of the hundreds of bags in the room. It takes them just a few minutes to analyze a piece of clothing and to decide where it should be located. I notice that there is something written in big blue letters on every bag. The first one that I read says: “70s sweaters”. I walk in the room and see “animal print”; “silk blouses”; “80s sports”; “Burberry”; “pencil skirts”; “white lace”.

6 P., interview, January 2014.

There are probably at least 500 bags in this part of the room, and I start to wonder how these categories came to exist. 7

The overwhelming amount and volume of clothes draws my attention. P. argues that this is a recycling business. All of the clothes actually come from recycling companies in The Netherlands that have bought them from charity organizations such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army or Humana. Those organizations then use the money for their charity or development projects.

One can find dozens of clothing recycling bins in Amsterdam. Big, green containers are distributed in different places in town. “Clothes with a future”, is the slogan which attempts to promote not just recycling, but solidarity with those “less privileged” societies and it is written on every bin, accompanied by the picture of a woman carrying a bag from the Red Cross that protects her from the strong sun rays. The woman is also wearing a headscarf, which makes me think that she is a Muslim. There are also some instructions written in English and Dutch:

7 In order to be able to see the content of the QR CODES, it is necessary to download from a smart phone or a tablet, an app which is available for free in the google store.

What is allowed in the container and what isn’t

Allowed: sweaters, t-shirts, shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, socks, shoes, boots, sport shoes, jackets, , coats, towels, tea towels, hand towels, blankets/bed covers, sandals, curtains, belts, hats, scarfs,

Not allowed: carpets, blankets, dirty or wet clothes, textile agricultural products, uniforms/professional clothing, leftovers from textiles, mattresses, cushions.

For everything you deliver, this applies: clean, not dirty, shoes should be paired (together), please put the clothes in a closed bag

No garbage! Textile and footwear only!

Find out what happens with your textiles.

The categories above are much simpler and far less sophisticated than those that are the basis of the work at the warehouse. So, when somebody throws their used clothes into these bins, they believe they are giving them to charity. “People think that in general, their clothes go directly to the poor people. This is not usually the case”, P. claims. When the clothes are collected from the bins, the charity organizations have quite a big bulk. Because the volumes are huge, these institutions sell the clothes to recycling companies, which allows them to get funding for their various projects and to pay for the space they occupy in the city with the bins. “They are supposed to do good things with the money”, says P. Once the clothes arrive at the recycling companies, a new classification is made and the clothes are graded according to quality. The lowest grades go to India and Pakistan, where the clothes will actually stop being clothes and turned into towels, cleaning cloths and similar items. The next grade goes to Africa in general, where other traders will buy them to then sell them to market vendors, “they are pressed in small packages, 45/50 kilos, then the guy from the market takes it, put it on his neck, goes to the market and finally cuts the package open and sells it.” The following group of clothing is considered to be of very good quality and is sent to Eastern European countries and the Middle East. Finally, the best quality is for the Western European countries and this category is called “cream quality”, which is considered “the best of the best” and it represents 5 to maximum 10% of the total amount.

Even though the warehouse has 4000 square meters of storage space which is filled with bags with the clothes, they do not really take much from the total volume of the recycling companies, only 0.5 to 1%. When the clothes arrive, they are handed over to the men on the 3 platforms, who spend the day picking them up, feeling the material with their hands, as some of the categories are related to the material only (silk blouses, white lace, velvet dresses, suede jackets, fake fur, among others). Analyzing the design is another crucial part of this procedure, which implies a bigger focus on the shape of the clothes. By talking to P. I learn that an 80s sweater usually has the shape of a butterfly, while the 90s sweaters are straight, longer and more loose. I also learn that bomber jackets are in big demand at the moment, so they have put a special effort to look for them. “The girls use oversized bomber jackets with leggings, they love them. Before, the skin heads used to wear them, now they

23 use them to have a 80s look. It is the same with the fur coats. Before, they were so fancy and elegant and now the girls use them with a legging and sneakers.” There are some bags dedicated to certain brands like Burberry8, Adidas9 and Levi’s10, “quite iconic brands for vintage fashion”, he continues. In the case of the shoes, All Star11 is a very ‘traditional’ brand in the vintage world. This conversation with P. makes me realize his knowledge of the history of fashion is quite impressive, so I ask him if he has studied it formally at the university or some similar institution, but he just learned from the experience of selling these clothes, and the same goes for everyone in the warehouse; nobody has had formal education in fashion or a similar discipline.

It’s just experience, it takes time. In principle, they do what the people in the recycling companies do. They select qualities. They are really good at it. They know what we do. They know all the styles. It takes half a year or a year of learning, of experience. Some people really don’t see it, which is also possible. People who have no idea about clothes. The best would be like to have a group of hipsters12 here, they are a really good source, and they know what to do! (Laughs). They have to recognize the styles and be able to separate them (80s, 70s).The more they are into fashion the better it is for us. We care about their ideas. They have to be able to recognize a 70s looks, or a 60s look. If they don’t recognize it, then it’s impossible, then it’s a problem.

So, the connoisseurs are not only the buyers and sellers: “people in the know” can also be found in charity organizations, recycling companies and distant warehouses. Those are certainly unexpected places for fashion. The knowledge of people working there was not necessarily learnt by doing research about retro aesthetics, but acquired in the direct, routinely contact with these clothes. As it was discussed before, the concept of vintage is strongly connected to a certain “expertise” shared among those who buy and sell vintage items. Downing Peters (2014) also talks about the status of connoisseur that sellers and buyers acquire through the circulation of knowledge about what vintage is. There is not only one way, as previously mentioned, to define what vintage is but what cannot be denied is that here is a specific knowledge circulating, a process that has been described by Gregson et al. (as cited by DeLong, Heinemann and Reiley 2005: 24) as “clever dressing”. The latter refers to those who are considered “knowing audiences” and “those who are in the know”, who are clearly deciding on the categories that define P.’s business.

8 Burberry Group is a British luxury fashion house founded in 1856 (Source: https://uk.burberry.com/our- history/#/heritage/heritage-1800-1) 9 Adidas AG is a German multinational corporation that designs and manufactures sports shoes, clothing and accessories, founded in 1924. (Source: http://www.global.adidas.com/) 10 Levi Strauss & Co. is a privately held American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi’s brand of denim jeans. It was founded in 1853 (Source: http://www.levistrauss.com/our-story/) 11 Athletic shoes produced by Nike, Inc. through its Converse division. The original Converse model and the company were created 1908 (Source: http://www.chucksconnection.com/history1.html) 12 As defined by the Urban Dictionary, hipsters are a “subculture of men and women in their 20's and 30's that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter.” In their rejection of mainstream consumption practices, hipster are important clientes to vintage and thrift stores http://nl.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hipster

P. started as a market vendor on the Waterlooplein13 in the beginning of the 80s, selling vintage clothing when it was very popular in The Netherlands already in the 60s. He trains all of the workers from the warehouse about the history of fashion, and the type of clothes that they need. “We do envision certain looks when we choose the clothes”, he tells me, which implies an active effort to keep up with the different trends in vintage fashion that become popular every season. They change all the time, which makes this business very connected to the past and to the future at the same time, because its owners also try to predict which items will be in demand. In this sense, Downing Peters might be right when she argues that one should observe the category of vintage not only as it relates to the past, but as it used in the present (2014: 216).

These categories are not static, it is all very dynamic. We supply to a lot of countries, you have this time frame in fashion of maybe 5 years. Something that is fashionable in one country, its maybe over in another country. In England high street14 is very popular. In Japan they wear like all kinds of crazy clothes because they don’t have any references to the Western culture. So they can wear Doctor Martens15, dye their hair green and put on a 70s t- shirt. For them, it doesn’t really matter. England is usually a little bit ahead of The Netherlands. Spain and Greece are a little bit behind compared to other countries in Europe. Holland is a little bit in the middle, same with France and Belgium. At the moment 90s are very popular in The Netherlands. Silk blouses, sports jackets are very popular, converse sneakers, fake fur was very popular this winter. Every year is a big surprise. I wish I knew everything up front, but we also just keep guessing.

Our talk continues as we walk up to the second floor of the warehouse, where yet another man16, is in charge of the bags containing shoes, women bags, hats and belts, which are also carefully organized in the transparent plastic bags. There is a bag dedicated only to golden belts and plenty of bags with cowboy boots. Then, I recognize these boots which I have seen in pictures of my father when he was young: a pair of 70s men leather boots that were quite scandalous in the Ecuadorian society at the time, because they have a small heel, and for my father’s parents “heels should be worn only by women”. I bit further there is a bag filled with silk scarfs and some fur hats, flip flops, and the ever present Adidas shoes. The tour is almost over and I feel incredibly cold. It is winter and the warehouse does not have a heating system, which does not seem to be a problem for anyone there, except me. This place is quite the opposite of some of the warm and cozy shops where these clothes are going to go soon. It is a rather cold, vast and the bags containing the clothes are piled. Hundreds of bags.

13 Waterlooplein is the oldest second hand market in Amsterdam (130 years). 14 There is a lot of debate regarding the meaning of “high street fashion”but in general, it is refered to affordable clothes that are quite fashionable at the same time. 15 British shoes and clothing company founded in 1960. According to their webs site, over 100 million pairs of Dr. Martens shoes have been sold from 1960 to 2010, and in 2010, the company offered 250 different models of footwear. Source: http://www.drmartens.com/uk/ 16 There are no women working in this company.

The 300 categories which P. offers to his clients are requested by vintage shops and vintage markets all over Europe and Japan, for retailers and wholesalers. And at this point of the tour, after having seen this detailed system of classification and organization, I am puzzled about the previous process, the one that occurs in the recycling companies; which turns discarded-clothing-put-inside-bins-for-charity into vintage items.

P. collects pictures of every item that he needs, and takes these pictures to the recycling companies. “I tell them this kind of dress I am looking for, this kind of jeans, this kind of blouse. We also show it with examples. If there is a lady that is sorting lady blouses we tell her: look, this is the blouse that we want. ” He and his partners do this personally, and they try to find one or two persons within the recycling companies that will help them make sure that the right items are selected and separated, and that everything is clean and in good state. These persons will supervise that P.’s company gets a collection of exactly the clothes that they are looking for. Thus, when the clothes are already in the warehouse, 95% of them are precisely what P. and his partners need. However, the training for the people of the recycling companies needs to be done continuously because, according to P., they tend to hire a lot of people on short contracts, making it complicated to build a permanent relation with their staff. P. sees this as an important obstacle in the circulation of this knowledge.

I had already visited the warehouse a couple of times and interviewed P., yet I was still not able to fully recognize the difference between one piece of clothing or the other, and certainly at that time I was still unable to understand the need to deploy this intricate system to sort out that one 90's US ladies crazy suit jacket, that Italian army jacket, or those 70s basketball shoes.

However, I learned soon that here is no consensus as to what vintage is. As everyone else in this research, P. has his own personal explanation of what vintage clothes are. “Popular culture is where it all comes from.” P. argues, adding that it is crucial for his business to avoid “modern shapes”, they do not want modern looking clothing.

Vintage is supposed to be from another era, from another period. The general word is used clothing, but if you are looking specifically for a certain time period, then is vintage. You can also have vintage furniture, for instance, or vintage electronics. It’s like modern antique, you can also call it like that. The second hand clothing business, that is not vintage, that is just a regular recycling business. When we started, vintage was called hippie. We were collecting 50s and 70s clothes.

There is one more thing that I found relevant and it had to do with the particular context of Amsterdam and the reasons behind the interest that people have in these objects. In P.’s opinion, the interest in vintage might have to do with the quality of education in The Netherlands, which determines that people make an extra effort to be different and authentic.

Maybe it has to do with people having time and knowledge and money. I think that someone who is working in the supermarket is not so interested in vintage. Maybe in second hand, but

not in vintage. Not so specific… Here in Amsterdam, people between 18 and 30, they stay in that period for a long time. Women have children on a later age, and a lot of guys they hang around and study for as long as they can. Or they work in the bars, it’s a period of a more leisure life. Also, everybody likes to look nice.

The warehouse’s second big room is where hundreds of bags of clothes are already carefully organized according to one of the 300 categories, waiting for the forklift truck to pick them up, put them in a container and go to the next stop: the vintage stores and markets. I would go back to the warehouse a couple more times to interview P. and watch the process again. By the time I interviewed him for the last time, I had already visited many vintage shops and noticed the shortage of clothes from the 50s and 60s. That made me wonder about the sustainability of this business.

We are already selling 1990s and 2000s as vintage. Where does this stop? What do we do after this? Amy Winehouse brought this whole 60s thing, but where do we find that? H&M used to copy a lot what was in fashion in the vintage. I remember that time, we were buying from Eastern Germany, it had just opened, so a lot of clothes were coming from there, and all of the sudden we saw these styles copied by H&M, and I have to admit their styling was really great. But we try to stay away from H&M. We buy the originals, not the remakes. We try to stay away from China production, too. Instead of nylon you should look for silk, full cotton, not acrylic, and when we look for jeans, we look for Levi’s. Already with the materials, you can make a good selection.

McColl et al. (2012) also brings up this issue in the vintage clothing industry. She argues that such scarcity of original old pieces have put them almost in the status of art, “it rivals the collection of art”. Additionally Wiseman (as cited by McColl et al. 2012: 142) explains that the “vintage consumers are being forced to search extensively and even globally to source the desired item”.

Thus, the future of the business might be, as P. and others have told me, the restyling and remaking of vintage clothes, proving that the life of vintage clothes can be much longer than the one of other just regular, less searched-for-as a white whale, piece of clothing.

Chapter conclusions

Concerning the main question of this research, in this chapter I have described a part of the metamorphosis of clothes from second hand to vintage. There has also been an attempt to describe in a detailed way the material frames in which this transformation takes place in order to reveal how these clothes are classified, organized and kept in this particular place, the vintage distributor’s warehouse. That detailed description of materials, styles, rooms and storage places has proven to be fruitful in terms of understanding the metamorphosis occurring here, which is the transformation of recycled clothes into vintage, through a sophisticated system of donating, recycling and sorting of clothes based on hundreds of categories of the pieces that the vintage wholesale distributors and their clients want. Those categories have come to exist thanks to decades of existence of the vintage business, and

27 are renewed constantly as the eras considered ‘vintage’ come closer in time (1990s and 2000s).

Ideas about fashion, taste and style are crucial throughout the whole process, attaching a certain meaning to certain objects which otherwise would not hold any value for the untrained eye. The expertise of the vintage connoisseurs (wholesale distributors), the staff of the recycling companies and the demand from vintage shops, markets and individual buyers creates a network of relations which upgrades some second hand clothes to the ‘higher’ status of vintage and downgrade others to ‘just’ second hand and cloths (the latter actually stop being clothes and are turned into towels, cleaning cloths and similar items). Before vintage existed, it was called hippie, and when vintage clothes disappear one day, vintage inspired clothes will take over. Related to the latter is the transformation taking place by using certain pieces in new sartorial practices, from ‘old fashioned’ to ‘hip’, by mixing them in new ways, which are changing all the time. The ways clothes ‘relate to each other’ which is analyzed through the wardrobe studies approach, is crucial to comprehend the type of knowledge circulating here.

As Miller stated, the people involved in this network play a role as much as the objects, which are integral to it. Miller’s reference to Goofman’s explanation of the “frame constituting the context of action” (2010:50) can be understood in relation to this chapter, in terms of how clothes are dealt with in different ways depending on where they are. This way, a ‘hierarchy’ of clothes is produced that, I argue, will influence the whole circulation of second hand clothes in Amsterdam.

All of the latter is relevant also regarding Kopytoff’s biographical approach, as I have started the narration in this chapter trying to account for the social career of clothes as traveling objects which poses a different status in every stage of their ‘lives’. At the stage described on this chapter, the donated clothes are re-commodified through the ways explained in the previous paragraphs.

The next chapters will follow this career too, in an attempt to continue describing the clothes’ story. The next destination are the places where they go after being sorted at the warehouse: the vintage shops and second hand markets.

Chapter 2

On being vintage or second hand: the life of clothes in the vintage shops and second hand markets of Amsterdam.

All of a sudden, I had transformed into a temporary market vendor who was paid with clothes. I had never worked in anything similar before. Carrying boxes filled with shoes and clothes, unpacking them in the stall and packing them again at the end of the day during the winter time was challenging. Also, coming from a non-European country with a student visa, anybody willing to hire me would have had to deal with a lot of paperwork for my work permit. Of course, nobody wanted to go through all of that for a temporary part time worker, so I decided to just be a volunteer in the markets.

The markets

There are dozens of vintage shops in Amsterdam and two iconic markets that specialize on these items: Noordermarkt (Northern Market) and Waterlooplein (Waterloo square.)

The Noordermarkt dates back to 1616, and every Monday it specializes on vintage clothing, antiques, second hand books, jewelry, old photographs, art, some food and also new things.

Spending my Mondays at this market during the winter was not the easiest thing especially because of the weather which forced me to seek for a warm refuge every now and then in the surrounding cafes. I would make my notes during those warm breaks.

The Noordermarkt is not a big market; it only occupies a small square in front of the Noorderkerk (Northern Church) in the beautiful Jordaan17 neighborhood. Every Monday the market makes the area even livelier with the surrounding cafes packed with people.

17 A neighborhood in the center of Amsterdam, in the gracht (canal) area, built in the 17th century originally for immigrants and the working class. That has changed enormously, and nowadays it is an area filled with art studios, vintage and antique and fancy designer shops, nice restaurants and traditional brown cafes.

The first stall that drew my attention on my first Monday there was occupying quite a lot of space and it was one of the most crowded ones. A long big table with the shape of an L was filled with different types of clothes for women. The ways in which the clothes were being handled by the clients reminded me of the 3 men in the platforms at the warehouse, only this time the clothes are being picked up, checked, touched and discarded in such a reckless way, that is almost frenetic

I noticed that these were in fact not second hand clothes. The owner of the stall, G., is a Dutch man in his fifties, whose background is quite similar to P. He has been at the Noordermarkt for 15 years, but in the beginning he and his wife use to sell original 50s and 60s clothes. However, after a while it was difficult to find these type of clothes, so they decided to produce them themselves. G.’s wife is a fashion designer who possesses a great deal of knowledge about vintage and its different styles; such knowledge was put in practice to start their company of “vintage inspired” clothes where they interpret vintage to this era to make the clothes look more current and modern. We continued this conversation over lunch, as G. was kind enough to invite me to join him and his family later in a Cafe nearby to learn more about their business. G. said that the business was slow because of the weather, and that it has been tough being in the market because it is so cold. Somehow we started to talk about iconic vintage clothing, and I learn that there is something called “the big E”, which refers to a particular model of Levi’s jeans18 that is searched for collectors all over the world and worth a lot of money. Some shops and stalls do not know about this and sell these jeans for a very cheap price.

On another visit to Noordermarkt I stopped at one stall that was selling only big, expensive brands, which in the vintage world is known as “luxury vintage”. Dozens of original Burberry trench coats19, Armani, Chanel and Jimmy Choo20 handbags, impressive fur coats. The people who specializes on this particular part of the vintage business are the most secretive about how they find these desired items, and the owner of this place was no exception. When I asked her (a Dutch woman in her 50s) where she got those luxurious items she just laughed out loud. There is another stand that only sells vintage boots, some even originally from the 1940s. I find the owner of the stall freezing, wrapped in three big scarfs trying to fight the cold weather with a warm cup of tea. I also ask her where she finds these type of shoes, as I have already learned at this point that the older the thing, the more difficult to find it. It seems that the question about the origin of these objects is sometimes uncomfortable, and she confirms that when she tells me that the competition in the market

18 American clothing company founded in 1853, famous for their jeans. In 2013 the company celebrated the 140 years of their famous 501 model. Jonathan Cheung, Head of Design for Levi Strauss & Co has said about the 501: ”It is the most iconic piece of clothing in history.” 19 British luxury fashion house. Their trench coat is an iconic piece of clothing in fashion history that has been copied several times by other clothing companies. The trench coat was originally military clothing, Thomas Burberry, the inventor of gabardine fabric, submitted a design for an Army officer's raincoat to the United Kingdom War Office in 1901. Source: http://www.sofeminine.co.uk/mag/luxury/d3054/x17906.html 20 Luxury and iconic fashion brands from Italy, France and the United Kingdom. A new handbag from these brands can cost up to 2000 euros, sometimes even more.

30 is fierce, so they need to keep their “addresses” a secret. I had a similar conversation, yet less pleasant, with the owner of a vintage shop in de Jordaan. She is known for having the most unique and stunning pieces from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I visited her exquisite shop a couple of times. During my first visit, she acted as the interviewer, asking me all kinds of questions; she did not trust me and told me that she was “tired of being nice to people who were trying to get information from her”. On my second visit, she was more relaxed and told me that getting the type of clothes she wants for her shop has become incredibly difficult, therefore her business depended totally on her keeping her ‘addresses’ a secret.

On a less sophisticated note, some stalls at the Noordermarkt do not even use hangers to organize the clothes, and just put them in piles on the floor. When I see the clothes like this, I remember a conversation with the owner of a vintage shop, who told me that the experience of shopping searching the piles “is like fishing. You don’t know what you are going to find. You cannot plan. You go and then you see.” 21 Dowing Peters (2014) agrees and evidences that “it is nearly impossible to enter the space hoping to find a specific item”. She refers to the Brooklyn Flea market, yet the analysis fits in this case.

Then one day I met Q., the man who was going to turn into my “boss” later. He is a charismatic actor who sells stage clothing from custom rental places. “I know these people, and they know me. They allow me to take the clothes they want to throw away.” He certainly offers some impressive, extravagant and outstanding pieces of clothing. Lying in a pile on a table one can find gala dresses made with fancy and shiny materials. A lot of velvet, quite a lot of sequins, silk, lace, satin, chiffon. Everything is carefully organized according to categories: women coats, men coats, men jackets, women jackets, sweaters, light jackets, long dresses, short dresses, wedding dresses, skirts, antique dresses, hats, sports clothing, and a lot of women leather boots hanging from the structure of the stall.

The day of our first interview, when we start talking about my research, he immediately gives me quite a perceptive explanation about the possible reasons behind the popularity of second hand clothes in Amsterdam.

People in Holland are Calvinists, so they want to avoid guilt, live without guilt. In the old days, the Devil was the reason or God, and now it’s global warming the reason not to do certain things. That is why people like to recycle.22

Guilt. I had not consider that factor until I spoke to G. We then go on to discuss the concept of vintage. Unexpectedly (to me, at least), his views about it are connected to a very important historical event, which is the fall of the Berlin wall. G. believes that the identity of people in this side of the world before that event was defined by their belonging to one or the other side of that wall (socialist or capitalist). Nowadays, people’s identities are determined by what they consume, he argues.

21 R., interview, February 2014. 22 G., interview, February/March 2014.

At the same time, his views about the concept of vintage are determined by his critique against the ordinary, the conventional things.

First of all my business is called Rag Time, it’s a name that was used for a certain kind of music on the 1920s, kind of a jazz style. But the word rag also means an old piece of cloth, so worn that you can’t use it anymore. This is why I chose that name. I sell stuff that has been used before, and I don’t care so much if it’s in good shape. What’s more important is the design, where it’s been and what it represents. I am someone who likes to dare to suggest that you wear something that is out of line, that people might say something about it, it’s out of the ordinary. But at least it tells a story about who you are and how you want to be associated. So, it’s kind of provocative. Something might be broken, but it can tell a story.

The previous statement is completely reflected in the objects that he chooses to expose in his stall. Those clothes have previously been used as customs in a film or a theater play, yet by their presence in the market they are transformed into regular attire again that G. dares people to use as some sort of challenge.

I prefer to show something that really challenges the client to go to the extremes of what they find presentable for themselves, which makes you stand out. Maybe a woman using a Scottish kilt. If a person accepts that, then I’ve made my contribution and made some money. It can be an Austrian tango dress, some uniform from a marching band. Something that makes people happy, colorful.

He does not acquire clothes from films and theater plays only, since he also buys clothes from P. I am not surprised. Considering the volume of clothes in the warehouse, probably many shops and markets buy from him. G. tells me that he and P. have been friends for years now and that he used to help him sometimes when P. had a place in Waterlooplein. A small world, the vintage world of Amsterdam.

During the week, I also spent quite a bit of time in Waterlooplein, the oldest market in Amsterdam and a fundamental place to understand the second hand business in the city; all of my interlocutors in chapters 1 and 2 have at some point of their life worked there. During one of my visits, I could not help but notice a stall in which I recognized, written in nicely decorated boards, a few of the famous categories written in the plastic bags of the warehouse. The shoes were the main attraction of this stand, with 3 brands starring in this sort of open air stage: Clarks23, Converse All Star24 and Dr. Martens. This is not a stall per se, the owners have access to the floor but need to bring their own hangers for the clothes. Many vendors at Waterlooplein have containers right there to store and showcase their products, which makes the daily packing and unpacking much easier. This is a right granted only to those who have been in the market the longest; one needs to have been working in the market consistently for at least 15 years to have the right to own a container (some have been there for more than 50 years.) The owners of the mentioned stand obviously

23 The first Clark shoes were made in 1825: http://www.clarks.co.uk/c/mens-shoes/black-shoes 24 Shoes company from the United States founded in 1903. Nowadays, they sell their products to 160 countries worldwide. Their iconic shoes are considered one of the most iconic symbols of street fashion.

32 have not had access to that privilege yet, consequently they must pack and unpack all of their products every day to bring them to the market and then back to the container they have in the outskirts of Amsterdam.

These details are shared with me while having some drinks in a bar close to the market with CP., a Dutch man in his late 30s. For the first time, I hear about another way to find things: garbage hunting. CP. has gone through the garbage many times, always hoping not to run into something unpleasant like for example, diapers. In his case, he prefers to hunt for garbage in the South of Amsterdam, a rich part of the city where he has found new TVs and even tablets, among other treasures,

Additionally to the garbage hunting, he has built a stable network of people who provides him with all kinds of second hand objects. That network is so successful that he manages to keep two containers always filled with things. I would visit his house once to interview his wife, S., and in the day of my visit, as I was leaving, we found a plastic bag filled with clothes that someone left at their front door; they do not even need to get out of their house to find things!

From time to time, people who make a living doing what CP. does, post ads in the yellow pages offering their services to clean people’s houses from the things they do not want anymore. I had never heard about such a service in my life, so CP. explains to me that some people just have not enough space for all the things that they accumulate, so these type of services are quite popular. Another situation in which these services are required is when someone dies and their house needs to be emptied.

The mobility of the products is very important for every market vendor that I have talked to, and CP. is no exception. So, it is imperative to show different products every day and to get rid of those things that he has not been able to sell for several days. In that sense, their most important day every year is King’s Day25, when they put on the street all of the things

25 Amsterdam celebrated King’s Day (Koningsdag) for the first time in 2014, after the inauguration of King Willem-Alexander on 30 April 2013 (what was then still Queen’s Day). The whole country celebrates the King’s

33 stored in the two containers and sell everything for 1 euro. If by the end of the day they have not sold enough, they just give everything away. “This business is about things moving”, he explains.

I come back to Waterlooplein the next day after meeting CP. for drinks, with the intention to spend the day at his stand. I there meet his wife. S., who is taking over his shift for the day. As most of the market vendors that I had met so far, she is also very gregarious and seems to enjoy the social part of the job a lot. “I met CP. when we both had bike taxis”, she tells me.

Our first date was to go to the Waterlooplein at 5 o’clock and to see what they threw out. And we would make something new out of it, you know. Or be creative with those things and I thought that was really romantic (laughs). And we got to know some of the people who worked there, and W.26 and he asked if CP. wanted to do a couple of jobs for him, and then a lot of jobs, and then we started to get into Waterlooplein …When I moved to Amsterdam my aunt, I have a crazy Aunt, she’s great and not conventional at all…. And when I moved to Amsterdam she told me ‘you should learn about ‘struinen’27. So we would go, my aunt and I in the middle of the night usually in the Old South and you know, find garbage and see what we could do with it. It’s like treasure hunting, some people call it like that too.

The conversation stops every time S. has to talk to the clients. They sell mostly clothes, but also other objects: jewelry, decorative items for the house (some of them quite crazy), books in English and Dutch, toys for the kids, and all kinds of things. It changes constantly depending on what interesting objects they find daily. S. tells me that a lot of people buy cheap second hand shoes only for festivals or specific events, use them once and then throw them away again. S.’s favorite part of the job is to decorate the place in creative ways; she is very talented in painting and drawing, which is evident in the lovely signboards where the prices are exposed. She selects the clothes that are going on a pile, and those who will be hanged carefully in the two available hangers. Every market vendor has their own unique system for setting up their stand with their favorite objects, and pay little to no attention at all to formal marketing rules to promote themselves. Most of them have been running their business in the same way for years.

Suddenly, I see a man jumping into a garbage bin as if he was literally diving headlong into a swimming pool. S. notices how surprised I look and brings up yet another new concept to add to my list of “one and a millions ways to get second hand stuff in Amsterdam”: dumpster diving. It is quite common at the Waterlooplein, she adds, as we watch the man getting out of the bin with two books in his hands. He leaves very quickly. S. says that as common as it is, people still feel ashamed of having to do that.

birthday and as part of the celebrations, the cities transform into huge open air markets where everyone is allowed to take the streets to sell whatever they want, or just give things away. 26 W. is well known as the oldest market vendor in Waterlooplein. He also has a place in Noordermarkt. 27 Dutch word that means “garbage hunting in the middle of the night”.

As for the vintage concept, S. agrees with many of my interlocutors about the fact that it is a rather new concept that is sometimes replacing what was used to be called simply second hand clothes. Every so often, second hand and vintage are just the same.

Basically what they did with the vintage clothing, is that it is hot and happening, so it’s better than second hand. To buy second hand, you would go to the charity shops, and buy a t-shirt that belonged to somebody else because you cannot buy a new t-shirt. Vintage is like, there’s a dress from the 70s, it’s really cool, so somebody in a shop picked it out, and you go there and it is only nice things, and that’s the vintage clothing. Then you’re like…hip (laughs.) But I mean, it’s not that different. You can go to the charity shop (Kringloop winkel in Dutch) and find a very nice vintage piece.

We would continue our conversation during my next visits to her stand. It was now time to pick up everything and close at 5 pm (it was 4). S. takes several boxes out of her van and hands some to me; I am in charge of packing up the shoes. Every box needs to contain a specific category of shoes, they should not be mixed. Packing up is quite exhausting.

While helping S. was extremely exciting, I did not participate in the sales, but I did sell things at G.’s stall (the actor). He transports everything in a huge van which I used to call the “magicians hat”, because of the incredibly huge amount of things that can fit in it. G. has a stable place in the market, next to the famous W. As for the sales, the price-decisions are to me very intriguing. They are unquestionably very flexible, to say the least. At the end of the day, it is entirely the owners decision and the price of a piece can change within minutes, depending on many circumstances like the attitude of the client towards it, whether it is the beginning or the end of the day, how long has the item been on the stall or even the attachment the owner of the stall/shop themselves towards the thing. However, any item that ends up in one of these open air market is there because it has already been discarded from some other place and that is why they are always cheaper.

The latter was explained to me by the owner of a vintage shop, R., where I use to spend a couple of times a week, observing his work:

When things are not selling so well, I put them in a bag and go to the market (Noordernarkt.) In the market, I just put the things on the table, and it’s totally different, because the prices need to be low, and people like to look in big piles of things. You have to do it differently. If something it’s too long in the shop, like 6 weeks, you know this is not going to sell, I have to put it there (in the market) for a low price, let’s say 5 euros.

I visited him once at his stall in Noordermarkt. I actually needed to buy some things for myself, but he refused to negotiate the price with me. He told me “you already know how this works, so if you pay 1 euro (for every item), that is okay.” I was now one of those “in the know”.

R. argues that the prices are decided based on the experience that the shops and market vendors have, but acknowledges that there is more freedom to establish and change prices, if necessary, in the second hand business.

… Okay, sometimes I take my bike and go to other shops and see what their prices are. The price is what people are willing to give for it, and also…it’s very difficult. For a vintage dress, then you can say okay, this is very special, I cannot find another. Then that dress in the 60s was 100 USD, but now you can ask for 200. For example, the woman who just bought the boots, I asked for 39, and then she says oh, I want to put the price. And then I explain that is a good brand, and there is a negotiation. I am free to do that. If somebody has a good argument like, for example, a student, it’s 35 but I don’t have much money, can I have it for 25? And I can think okay, it’s a student. Can I also make a good profit for that price? And if I make a good profit, then it’s okay. You can ask the prices that you want.

Back to G.’s stall, we continue the packing process. The hardest part of it occurs when the hanging pipes need to be disarmed. Each weights at least 15 kilos, which need to be handed to G. at the door of the van. Surprisingly, all of the hanged clothes of his 6x10 square meters stall fit in the van, accompanied by the clamps, plastic bags, hanging pipes, hangers, and the decoration items. This work is about creativity, sales talent and physical strength.

The Monday after that, I was able to be more active in the sales. It did not feel natural to me, as I had never sold anything before. G. advises me to engage in conversations with the people who come into the stall “ask them where they are from, if you see they like a hat, tell them they look great on it or advise them to go and see themselves in the mirror. Make them feel at home.” One day, G. left me in charge of the stall for 20 minutes, in which I awkwardly tried to start conversations with the visitors. When he came back, he had two bags filled with clothes that he had just gotten from the legendary W. We emptied the bags on the floor, and started to select clothes. G. has a weak spot for crazy looking clothes. Everything that we discarded was put in the garbage and was mostly “boring” clothes, the ones G. hates the most and that could never make their way into his stall.

The vintage shop

There are dozens of vintage shops in Amsterdam. Some of them are small while others are big businesses. Some of them specialize in old clothes from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Others are more flexible and include the 1980s and even the 2000s in their selection of clothes. The ones with the truly original and oldest items look like clothing museums. In all of them, every detail is well thought to create a certain atmosphere: the music, the decoration, the lighting. They all have a particular smell, the smell of used clothes.

The work in a vintage clothing shop, at least in the one in which I spent most of my time, is much more relaxed and quiet than the hectic, busy and physically demanding markets. O. is a Dutch man in his 60s who has had this shop since 1982, as part of a family business. He buys the clothes for his shop from a company owned by his nephew. Back when he started, he was able to find and sell 50s clothing, and sometimes even clothing from the 1940s. O. has been a witness of this business since he was a child, he grew up in it.

His days at the shop consist mainly in sitting behind the counter, reading a book, drinking tea, decorating and organizing the shop and talking to the clients. Friday is an important day for him, because he goes to his nephew’s company to select new items; he does this personally and not even the employees from the shop have been authorized to come with him there. Since it is his family company after all, he has the advantage to see everything that they get first hand, before they show it to other costumers. After spending time with him for several weeks, I asked O. whether I could join him to observe the sorting process in the nephew’s company. I even handed him a letter from the university to make sure that he understood very well the purpose of my project. He hesitated a lot, but finally decided against it. He seemed very sorry for not being able to help me, and apologized many times.

O.’s shop is a colorful and cozy place with two big windows facing two of the beautiful streets of the Jordaan. His windows used to be very celebrated in the city in the 1980s and 1990s, he recalls, because at the time he had a professional window dresser working for him. The clothes in the windows are not up for sale, nevertheless many people become obsessed with some pieces exhibited there and get angry if he refuses to sell them. O. usually calls these overly enthusiastic clients once the particular item is not in the window any longer, to let them know they can finally buy it.

The store is divided in two rooms. In the first one, there are the dresses for winter and summer. O. showed me an original yellow 60s dress in the shape of an A. He tells me that every time he finds an item that he knows is special “he gets a kick out of it.” He has a big selection of second hand clothes from H&M, which he does not like but describes it as “inevitable” because finding old clothes has become very hard. In the next room O. has an impressive selection of fur and trench coats. The shoes can be found in this part, together with clothes for men like t-shits, shirts, sweaters, leather jackets and 80s sportswear. My attention goes to some skirts hanging on the ceiling that to me look like ballerina tutus. O. explains to me that these items are called “petti coats” which right now only serve for decoration purposes, but were a big hit in the 80s when everybody wanted to wear 1950s dresses. The petti coat is a very wide underskirt that was used to give a dress or a skirt a lot of volume. This type of shape was made popular by Christian Dior28 in the late 1940s and became very hip in Amsterdam in the 1980s. Nowadays he only sells maybe one of them every year. O’s shop is a very peaceful and warm place and the clothes look fantastic in it.

28 http://www.vintageconnection.net/NewLook.htm

While he is sipping his cup of tea, we discuss ideas about the vintage concept.

I don’t know if there is a definition for that. For me maybe we can call the 80s vintage, because I think it has to do of how much you can find it in the second hand business. If it becomes hard to find, maybe then it becomes vintage. But if I want special brands that maybe do not exist anymore, maybe that is vintage. For me, in my opinion, the 90s are too close by to be considered vintage. I don’t have a good idea about the 90s. I don’t have a real connection with it, I have a closer connection with the 70s because I grew up then. And the 60s I know maybe from my parents or from movies. I don’t like to look for 80s stuff, because I don’t like it, the quality is not so good, and I don’t like that kind of fashion. But I like to find things from the 70s, special things. The 50s also, the quality of the 50s was very high. And then in the 70s it becomes more synthetic. You can still maybe buy quality, but you gave to pay also, a lot. And in the 50s the quality was standard. Everybody could buy good things.

Since he mentioned before that he has witnessed this business since he was a child, I ask him about something that P. told me at the warehouse, which was that before calling it vintage, people would call these clothes hippie. He agrees with P. and tells me that when his parents started their company in the 1960s, it was a small business which was very often visited by a lot of hippies looking for dresses from the 1940s, because those dresses were colorful and the fabrics had a lot of flowers. The hippies were rebelling against their parents, and did not want to use their 1950s clothes.

After searching for her for a while, I finally met the most well-known, self-identified hippie, ‘authority’ of the vintage business in Amsterdam. She was in Los Angeles for 3 weeks looking for vintage clothes and has always a very complicated schedule. The interview took place in her second shop, which is a vintage wedding gowns shop. As I waited for her, I walked through a collection of beautiful wedding gowns and their accessories. There is a certain brightness in the place probably caused by the overwhelming presence of the white dresses. The fabrics are opulent, sumptuous and the gowns magnificent. A white corset filled with lace, sequins and pearls rests on a table next to a pile of other corsets. There are three shelfs with white purses, white delicate lace gloves, white hats decorated with feathers, chiffon or pearls, bouquets of flowers and flower crowns. A line of white shoes

38 stands on the beige carpeted floor. A tag hangs from all of the dresses, I read one with the caption: “USA Los Angeles. Beautiful model. Original 50s dress from Hollywood.” (In Dutch: Prachtig model. Origineel 50s uit Hollywood.) The delicacy of the dresses makes this place almost ethereal.

Like here, we make people really happy with the vintage wedding dresses, because it’s like tenth of the price that you pay for a new wedding dress. We help them make the dress they want. We have the right materials. We help them create it. I used to love to play with my Barbie dolls. And now we have these beautiful girls that we can dress up! (Laughs). We customize the dresses. Most of the 50s dresses are very prude. We change them to make them look more from today. I am the only one who does this, people come from Belgium and everywhere. There is another similar shop in Paris and one in London.

L. is a Dutch woman in her sixties who owns two vintage shops. One of her shops is in the 9 streets and the other in Amsterdam West, in an industrial complex. Every Sunday there is a vintage-per-kilo sale in her second shop, where people can pay 12 euros per kilo of clothes. This modality to sell vintage is quite popular in the city, with many shops only selling by kilo, at very cheap prices.

L. was mentioned many times by my interlocutors as one of the few people in town who still sells original vintage pieces and even some antiques.

I was a hippie. When I was 16 I used to go to the flea market to look for hippie dresses. At that time it was very hip to dress yourself up in wrapped chiffon flower dresses, combined with stuff from India. Then you were a really cool hippie. I was good in finding those dresses in the piles of clothes. And that time was different. The whole structure of the second hand clothes business has dramatically changed. The people who originally were second hand clothes traders had no idea about vintage or antique. They were just producing volume or stuff that was good for export. 29

She shares with me the news of the innovative concept that she will put in practice soon in her shops, which is giving the people the chance to have the clothes altered on the spot.

29 L. Interview, March 2015.

“We will be the first shop customizing the clothes, we give also advice on how to style. We have professional people doing that.” Some of that is already happening with the wedding dresses. I see two employees sewing, one by hand and another in the sewing machine. The first asks L. for advice on how to sew satin.

I am the one training people on the shop. There are a few things that are like land marks: if the zipper is made from iron or plastic. Old zippers are always from iron. You can see the way something has been finished, usually by hand. You can see the design, the material and recognize it immediately… in the 50s they used specific materials. There is no polyester in the 50s. You can feel it too: silk, cottons…The materials, the designs, the way something is made. You always have to feel with your hand how old something is, that can be done. Or the quality. A lot of things produced in the 90s are made from shitty materials, expect for the expensive things. If it’s a real good label they use real silk or cotton, but all the cheap things are made of polyester or variations from polyester.

Her way to describe the process of recognizing a vintage piece relates quite a lot with Miller’s (2010:41) description of how one should study clothing, which in his views can never be done in a cold way, on the contrary “it has to invoke the tactile, emotional, intimate world of feelings”.

L. acquires most of her clothes outside of The Netherlands. She has special addresses of people who sort exclusively for her in rag yards in Poland and other countries. She does not buy from wholesalers, as a way to avoid being stuck with things that are not “good enough”.

Her shop in the Jordaan is practically a vintage lover amusement park. The window shop cannot be missed when walking in the street; it is a colorful display of spectacular vintage gala dresses. Inside of the shop, there is a “red wall” filled with red handbags, purses, shoes and accessories. Then there are the golden, black, brown and platinum walls. The store has 3 floors and in the first one, one can find many iconic 501 Levi’s jeans, imposing fur coats and antique dresses than hang from the wall. They exhibit some dresses from the beginning of the 20th century and a few even older. The prices of those started at 800 euros, but those pieces cannot be used by anyone anymore; the fabrics have become too fragile. Those kind of dresses have become antiques, exist to be admired and have historical value.

The second floor is dedicated to children clothing, vintage cloths and some men shoes, all hand made from Spain. The third floor was my favorite; it was the one with all the superb gala dresses with such a variety of fabrics and materials that the room felt like a parade of color, textures and sumptuousness.

Aside from the beauty of the clothes, L. thinks about consuming vintage as a political statement against the ways in which a lot of things are being produced in China, Pakistan and India. For her, this is also about recycling.

The thing about recycling is growing bigger and bigger, which already happened in the food industry. You don’t want to eat all that shit anymore. Like my daughters, they don’t want to go to HyM anymore to buy t-shirts

40 that will fall apart after 2 times washing. They want to invest in something solid, something that is made well, it has been produced well, like in a fair trade kind of way. It’s the same with food. People became more aware and the same will happen with clothing. We are not going to take that shit anymore that is produced in China, Pakistan and India that is causing an enormous amount of pollution. It’s all rubbish.

At the same time, she thinks of the vintage consumers as people from the upper classes:

Poor people think they are not poor buying something new, but you look even poorer buying something new that is shitty than if you were wearing a very good quality second hand thing. It depends on your social status. People from lower classes prefer to buy new clothes. People from higher classes vintage. It’s actually more chic and you are more aware… now vintage is the gold. People understood that there is a lot of value in antique clothing. Young people like to dress up in old things to distinguish themselves from regular fashion. It’s kind of a free place to express yourself. That is why it became so big.

Chapter conclusions

By following the clothes from the warehouse to their next destination, the vintage shops and second hand markets, I observed this business on a smaller scale, where many new strategies to get these clothes come into play. In this chapter I have described a network of people with a lot of experience in this business (between 10 and 35 years), who are the owners of iconic vintage and second hand places in the city. They are all recognized by their peers for their knowledge and expertise in this topic. All of them have in common one place, Waterlooplein, as the place where they all started. This finding was not planned on purpose by me, it was just a coincidence which proves the importance of this market for everyone involved in the second hand and vintage business in the city.

At this stage of their lives, the clothes are moved from one place to another quickly, in a business in which things need to move fast in order to produce a profit. Numerous strategies are deployed in a way that they transform the meanings attached to a piece of clothing at an incredible speed, daily and sometimes by the hour. The latter is possible due to the fact that they are always available and scarcity is never the problem.

As for the social transformations of clothes taking place, there is one which is crucial to understand the dynamics of the second hand markets in the city and that is the metamorphosis of garbage into commodity, and then back to garbage again. Along the same lines is the practice of buying clothes to use them once, only to discard them again immediately, a status in-between garbage and possession. The aforementioned rapidity of the changing statuses can be observed also in the service that will be provided by L., altering vintage clothes on the spot. Even stage clothes and customs are sold in the market as normal apparel, revealing the unending chain of mutations that second hand clothes go through in Amsterdam.

The latter proves that second hand clothes never stop circulating, and that very few people

41 involved in this group consider the possibility of actually discarding them, without trying to commercialize them first. These people are part of the network described in chapter 1, but their businesses are not as substantial as the big vintage distributors. Additionally, the circulation of the clothes within this network is greatly influenced by people who are not in the business, but are constantly getting rid of things, while the second hand clothes dealer’s role is constantly giving them new lives and new uses.

As for the knowledge that circulates in these places, it is still heavily influenced by the status of being vintage or not, however the concept of “vintage” itself is also quite diverse and cannot be understood as a static or fixed category, because there is not really a consensus about its meaning. For a few informants, the concept of vintage is even capricious, at times. In this chapter, vintage has been broaden to luxury vintage, vintage inspired and vintage’s previous name, hippie. And even higher in this hierarchy are the clothes considered “antique”, a status that is close to the status of art. Nonetheless, it is not my intention to come up with a definition of this concept, but to account for its role in the circulation of second hand clothes in the city.

Also important to understand the knowledge being put in practice here, is the secrecy surrounding these objects and the incredibly flexible way in which the prices are decided. The secrecy has to do with the normal competitive nature of any business, but also with an intention to create an image of uniqueness to these clothes, which need to be presented as exclusive, exceptional and beautiful. Such an object needs to hold an aura of mystery sometimes. As for the unpredictable ways in which the prices are decided in the shops and markets, it has a lot to do with the secrecy factor as well, because it is not always well known how and where did they get those clothes, therefore the information about the original cost of the items is not always available. Secondly, there is an expertise, a certain knowledge about the authenticity and value of some pieces that not all the market vendors or shop owners possess, which results in similar items being sold at very different prices in different places. Finally, and it has been already said before, the price will depend on the place, being the vintage shops, located usually in expensive neighborhoods, the places where the most pricy clothes are sold.

Three aspects have been crucial in the last two chapters in order to answer the main research question: the material frames of clothes, the ways in which the knowledge about vintage and second hand clothes circulates in the city and the networks in which the objects are circulating. The latter is strongly related to Miller’s (2012: 12) interest in emphasizing a certain ‘agency’ of things, through their role in certain network of relations.

The next chapter analyzes completely different places not connected to this business, where the trajectory of the clothes continues.

Chapter 3

On being discarded, treasured or exchanged: the life of clothes outside of the vintage and second hand commercial circuits.

THE PUBLIC WARDROBE

Without having spent a penny, I left C.’s house with a brand new Tommy Hilfiger black jacket, a pair of wooden summer shoes and a beautiful red handmade wool scarf.

My friend D. was invited to a private “clothing swap party” and thought that it would be interesting for my research, so she asked the host whether I could come. The host, C., a Dutch DJ and photographer in her 30s, has been organizing these parties for a while, inviting only her closest friends, most of them colleagues from work. After my presence was approved, we headed to the swap party on a Friday night with one bag of clothes each. However, I was too busy to put the time to carefully choose particularly special items for the occasion, and only picked up a few things that I knew I had not been wearing for already a while. Later I would realize that everyone at the party had done the exact opposite, which means that a sorting process occurred beforehand at their closets with the aim of bringing attractive items to the party that they knew would be interesting for the friends who would be attending. They knew each other’s taste in clothes, style and even sizes.

Clothing swap parties are very popular in Amsterdam. Some are private, while others are promoted as public events in which people will have the opportunity to renew their wardrobe while having some drinks and tasting some nice food. Such events are inspired by anti-consumerism ideas and are trying to raise awareness about the need to recycle clothes instead of just throwing them away them or buying new clothes all the time.

The following is an example of a set of rules of one group who organizes big public swap parties and announce them on Facebook:

 Bring only good clothes without holes etc. and clean / recently washed.  Your clothes have to be interesting for someone else, so only trendy or vintage pieces.  The ladies at the entrance will check the clothes you bring for good quality and if they are swappable. They make the rules and so they have the last say  For each item you bring in you’ll get a swapping point on your tickets.  The number of points on your swapping ticket are the number of items you can take home with you this afternoon.  If you can’t find anything this time, you can bring your swapping ticket to the next edition.

So, the clothes need to meet certain standards to make them “swappable”. By doing so, the clothing swap events distance themselves from giveaway or charity shops in which clothes only need to be clean an in a good state, and being “trendy or vintage” is not important. I argue that while the critical attitudes against consumerism are at the core of these events, the motivations are not only connected to worries about sustainability but also to an urge to renovate the wardrobe constantly.

The personal stories connected to the clothes that are most of the time absent when one finds these items on the commercial circuits, become very important at this spaces. In the party I attended, when the swapping started every woman (this swap party was attended only by women) had to stand up in front of the rest and basically do a presentation about the clothes. Everyone was in the spotlight; one really needed to “sell” the clothes. Most of the stories included some information about the brand (when the brand was famous), the present condition of the clothes (how many times it had been used), the reasons why they had been bought in the first place (for parties, festivals, the office, for no reason whatsoever), the original price (even though that information was not shared that often), and the level of attachment to it (whether it was tough to let it go or not at all). We were basically listening to the story of the clothes, their biography.

This is a brand new Tommy Hilfiger jacket that I just don’t want to use anymore…this is a vintage sports jacket from the 70s…I bought these shoes and after wearing them I realized they were too small…I don’t fit in this skirt anymore…I wore this dress too many times and I want something new…I am not sure you guys will like this…I know this is not something you would wear but…You skinny girls should wear this…My ass is too big…Try this on! This will look amazing on your body…you should wear brighter colors…

Everybody had to model the new acquired pieces of clothing in front of the attendees, who would usually complement the proud new owner of the clothes, with some encouraging words about how good they looked in them accompanied by some advice about how to accessorize the new outfit. All of this happened while the bottles of wine circulated just as fast as the clothes.

Public swap parties are quite different. The main purpose is the same, which is the exchange of second hand clothes, though the atmosphere is less personal. There is swap shop in Amsterdam that organizes swap parties every 3 months, but it is regularly open 5 days a week, which means that the swapping is happening on a regular basis as part of this neighborhood’s routine. During the swap parties, every attendee needs to pay a very small fee (2 euros) as a contribution, because the shop is part of a bigger, non-profit project. The project started as the collaboration between two artists and a housing corporation in a neighborhood that at that time (5 years ago) was considered “the worst neighborhood in the

Netherlands”30, in which such corporation had built some houses that were impossible to be sold or rented due to the bad reputation of the place. For that reason, the artists and the corporation came up with a project meant to transform the place and the social imaginary about it, by offering some spaces in the neighborhood for art projects and cheap housing for artists in some of their buildings. The role of the artists was and still is crucial in this attempt to transform the neighborhood, for which they contribute by working for some hours during the week in the project, collaborating with the different initiatives of the project (art gallery, library, coffee house and the swap shop). In the beginning, 12 artists were involved, but it has grown so much that now 65 artists are living in the neighborhood supporting the development of spaces which are supposed to change the image and dynamics of the place.

The main goal is to socialize with the neighborhood, to talk to the people. There was this thing before that people would always stay at home. There are a lot of Muslims in the neighborhood so some guys would sometimes go to the mosque, but the ladies always stayed at home. And we were interested in bringing them outside, to talk to them, to be friends with them....I don’t know, to give them some social life, to give them a place where they could go.

In the swap parties, after organizing their clothes in the hangers, people walk around looking at the clothes, trying them on, looking themselves in the mirror, asking their friend’s opinion about it. This particular swap party was right in front of a cozy café that is part of the project and its role during the swap parties is helping these artists raising some extra money by selling the attendees cheap yet delicious coffee, tea and treats.

The atmosphere of the shop is quite different during the week. When I came back to interview G., the person responsible for managing it, it was very quiet, nobody came in. The shop was perfectly organized, the clothes neatly folded and the white ceramics of the floor impeccable. The small kitchen with coffee and tea was immaculate. A laundry washing machine is also a part of the place, where the arriving clothes are washed when it is considered necessary. There is a second floor to storage the large amount of clothes that the shop receives. Even though this shop is not really a place for business and has other type of goals, it does not look different from a regular clothes store. Nonetheless, that is just its exterior because it is actually radically different from a regular shop.

It started as a social project in the first place, and we thought okay, what can we give to them? And we thought clothes, it’s a nice idea, the ladies like clothes, it’s also a poor neighborhood…When you said that people in Ecuador don’t like to wear second hand clothes, we had the same experience here in the beginning. People started to trust us, and started to come, but it took some time. In the beginning it was very difficult to invite them inside. There was one lady who once told us “I don’t want people to see me here, they are going to think I’m poor.” So she would stay outside of the shop while her daughter was inside, and she would tell her which clothes to take from outside of the window (laughs.)

30 G., interview, March 2014.

G. is the only interviewee so far that mentions the stigma related to wearing used clothes, which is something familiar to me because of the Ecuadorian context, but it is not what I had observed so far in the vintage shops, markets, swapping private parties or while visiting people’s closets in Amsterdam. I have emphasized the role of the place throughout this document in terms of its importance to assign a certain status to clothes, and in this case, the latter is quite obvious. So much that in order to eliminate that stigma the shop had to change its name from “weggeef winkel” (in English: give away shop) 31 into “ruil winkel” (in English: swap shop)32. Such modification in the name of the shop was essential to accomplish its goal to attract the neighbors to it, because the “swapping” allowed people to actively contribute with the shop by bringing their clothes, instead of being passive recipients of free things.

Even when it’s not really a swap as it is supposed to be, one by one, the new name really changed the way how people treated us. But yes, people are really ashamed to show to that they are going to the second hand shop.

The stigma becomes even stronger when the used clothes are distributed in a place so close to one’s home, where there is no possibility to hide and one will be recognized by all the neighbors as a person who is in need, who is poor.

If they cannot give you clothes, they can at least give you something. So, sometimes they offer to voluntarily clean the place or arrange the shelves. This is the main idea, to make people feel involved with the project.

However, not everybody in the neighborhood seems to be using the clothes in the way the swap shop would expect.

We had a big problem, there was one lady who was seen selling the clothes on the market. There was this girl who was part of the project, and she was very fashionable and chic, she would give away lots of stuff for us. So she used to go a lot to the second hand markets, and in one of the markets she saw her own dress that she left here. We were really pissed, we are working so hard, and first they don’t appreciated it and second they try to get even more from it…therefore we made the rule of 3 items.

The rule of 3 items means that even when everyone is welcome to take clothes from the shop the first time they visit it without having to bring anything in exchange, it is expected that the second time people will bring at least 3 pieces of clothing in good condition. G. let me know that in spite of these being the rules, there is still a lot of flexibility because being too strict would pull people away.

In the beginning no one knew how it should be made. All the rules were made during the process. And then in the beginning there were no restrictions for the amount of clothes that

31 Dutch for “give away shop” 32 Dutch for “swap shop”

you could take and we were really working hard to get nice clothes, nice items. But then we say that people were misusing the shop. They would come, talk to you and then take loads of stuff, without bringing anything. And then we thought, maybe that’s not what we want. We want the interaction first, and then we want that people respect and appreciate what we are doing…

…So, okay you can take 3 items just like this, because maybe you are here for the first time, but next time you can bring something. This is the idea, that you take, but next time you can bring something. Also if you don’t like the items, you went home and you tried them and you don’t like them anymore, you can bring them back.

On the contrary, the dynamics of the shop during the swap parties are quite different from its routine during the week. The swap parties are attended mostly by people from outside of the neighborhood and the attendees of the parties are some of the people who bring the majority of the clothes to the shop. Due to their financial restrictions, some people in the neighborhood are not always able to actively participate in the exchange. However, there is another issue: their clothes are not always considered swappable or attractive.

During the week it’s mostly people from the neighborhood, Dutch people, but mostly immigrants, Moroccan, Brazilian, from Iran, and also friends from people who work here. The Moroccan ladies for example bring a certain type of clothes that the people from the swap parties won’t probably take and also the other way around…I think that is maybe good that they don’t intersect in the swap parties. The swap parties have a particular atmosphere, and a particular type of people and clothes…I think on the swap it’s nice to have this equal type of clothes so it’s fairer for them to swap it with each other. It’s a good balance.

This way, the clothes circulate in a manner that is beneficial for everyone, in G.’s opinion. But the ideas that are also circulating attached to those clothes cannot be overlooked, for instance the fact that there is a group of people who are considered to be the holders of good taste.

While a lot of people voluntarily participate in swap parties as a way to renew their wardrobe in a fun way and get nice clothes basically for free, there are some people who do not necessarily participate in this exchange willingly, as it is obvious from G’s stories about people not wanting to be seen in the shop. Possibly, many would prefer to buy new clothes that they choose themselves, as a way to dispel the burden of poverty once in a while. Everyone in this group (G., the person who donated the clothes, the woman who tried to sell them), have certain expectations about the clothes and the kind of biography which the clothes should have.

G.’s work in the swap shop has not only provided her with a lot of stories to tell but in addition, she has had for a long time access to a huge wardrobe and has not needed to buy clothes in 2 years. She is the only person that I know who has accomplished such a thing.

For me it was quite a liberating feeling, in my childhood you don’t have a lot of clothes, and there is this struggle to get a nice one, a good one, and then finally you save some money, and you spent lots of money…For me with this shop, I am fighting my old demons from the past because it can be so much easier, without any stress, no pressure, because you don’t pay.

A friend of G. calls the swap shop the “public wardrobe”. It really is. This concept goes beyond a mere interest in clothes, at least for those supporting it. It is a political statement against consumerism. McColl et al. (2013) argue that among other reasons, the wider acceptance of vintage and second hand clothes is definitely influenced by “a mounting consciousness of the consumers about unethical practices in the fashion industry”. Nowadays, the clothes are not made to last, and some big brands have new collections in their stores “every sixth week and not by season as earlier” (Palmskod 2015: 32), which has earned them the name of “fast/disposable fashion”. The phenomenon of fast fashion results also on clothes being available at incredibly cheap prices, making society consume them more and incorporating a new concern in people’s lives which is the sorting and discarding of the many clothes they amass (Palmskod 2015: 32). As opposed to that, the vintage and second hand market of clothes is considered “slow fashion”.

The motives for people to decide to take their clothes to the swap shop are also important to understand the trajectory of these clothes, specifically the sorting process taking place in people’s homes. The swap parties are a clear example of people’s need to keep their things circulating, and such effort might be done, in Palmskold’s opinion (2015: 37) out of guilt, among other reasons. The author argues that there is a moral issue influencing the sorting process of textiles in a home, since people do not want to throw away items that could be used by someone else; “on the other hand, there are items that they really do not want to keep and use anymore. The feelings of guilt are however less troubling if the clothes and textiles on a household level have been circulating in several steps before they are sorted. Donating textiles to charity organizations helps to reduce the feeling of guilty conscience. When choosing these alternative, the decisions of the future fate of the textiles are carried forward to the receiving organization.” (Palmskold 2015: 37).

However, the decisions about how to get rid of clothes vary immensely depending on the context. G. remembers previous times in her country where there was an active effort in every household to not throw anything away. She explains that in Russia, she did not have access to a great quantity of clothes, nor did she ever discard them.

In Russia there is not a tendency to throw things. People save money, they say “okay I need this” and they buy something of good quality and they think “okay, I’m going to wear this for many years.”

When I was a child, it was normal that you fixed your things, your clothes. I remember when I was very small, that this is a knowledge that your parents give you. They taught me how to fix socks, how to put it in this matrioshka thing, and then do it like this (she shows

me)…that’s something that all girls knew…nowadays, it’s just not cool anymore to have something stitched or looking very old…

Palmskold (2015), has observed certain practices in Sweden connected to the reuse of textiles, and argues that there is a generational difference, since young people nowadays do not have the knowledge that G. was talking about, the knowledge of altering, patching and mending clothes, while those from previous eras do.

As for Amsterdam, in G.’s opinion, among the many existing possibilities of making clothes circulate, swapping them is one of the more ethical ones. The latter has a lot to do with her views on the vintage business.

In Russia they sell the clothes that people put here in the containers, they go to Eastern Europe and it’s going to be sold for a lot of money… this is why I don’t recommend people to leave the clothes in the recycling bins, because this friend that works on a vintage shop told me that they get the best clothes from the green containers, and then the rest goes to Eastern Europe. It’s awful that someone is making money on you, and you think you did a good thing…

To be able to tell the whole story of second hand clothes in Amsterdam, one would need to trace them down to all of the places where they go and observe how they are being used in other contexts different from Europe, which brings me to G.’s concerns about what happens after a person has put their clothes in the recycling bins in Amsterdam.

I read an article about the clothes that go to Africa and they get 200 tons of cheap clothes from Europe per year and this way they are destroying the local production of clothes. So the craft is disappearing. It’s the same old ideas, we are Europeans, we go to these wild countries as preachers, to tell them how the life is, how to be a good human being.

G.’s remarks about the clothes sent from Europe to Russia an Africa reminded me of the story a Dutch friend told me about some kids she saw in Cameroon in 2013 wearing t-shirts from the Dutch labor party, an item that most kids in the Netherlands would not want to wear, in her opinion. Tranberg Hansen (1995) in her work about the “transnational biographies of clothes” which is focused on the trade and consumption of second hand clothes in Zambia, acknowledges the problems related to the massive presence of second hand clothes from Europe for the textile industry of the country and therefore its economy. However, she argues that the local “popular sentiments” about this topic are less negative. (1995: 132).

I left the swap shop with some clothes that G. encouraged me to take. Throughout my whole time following these objects, they would also follow me back, staying in my closet as a reminder of all the stories I have heard. The latter made realize of the importance of such place: the closet.

THE CLOSET

There is a public city that is registered by cartographers, but then there is another intimate and secret city, of our biographies. Jorge Luis Borges

A very well respected Ecuadorian documentary about the forced disappearance of two teenage boys in the hands of the Police 20 years ago, which was produced and directed by the kids’ sister years later, tells the story of the tireless search of the parents and the heartbreaking acknowledgement that their kids were tortured, murdered and disappeared by the police for no reason at all. It is a tragic and powerful account about memory and justice. In one of the most moving scenes, the camera focused for a while in one of the boy’s closets, where only two pieces of clothing (a pair of pants and a t-shirt) were left. In the meantime, one can hear the sister’s voice in off saying that those clothes felt like a proof that the boys actually did exist, as the memories of them were vanishing year after year. The latter made me think about the power of the presence of certain objects and particularly the clothes in people’s households.

THE OPEN CLOSET

Heyyyy (Emoticón smile) I'm selling my denim jacket that I only wore once. It's a bit too big for me. Size M (approx.) It's in very good condition and keeps you warm in cold weather … Hi! I have many clothes and not only to sell, you can come and have a look Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday as of 6PM. Address via PM. €2 per item. Sizes S/36, sometimes 34/38. Some items are already reserved … Gucci Silk scarf €35. Real deal... Selling my Gucci silk scarf! I got it as a gift but not my thing... Hope it finds a new owner now (original price: 420€) - 80x80cm … Cape / Poncho from Paris €25. Bought this beauty a while ago in Paris, the brand is la Rochelle. I am not wearing it at much as I'd like so it could be yours! It's a poncho model with a hoodie and an attached scarf. I uploaded multiple photo's so you can actually understand the model. It probably looks best if your a little bit tall as its a long model, I am wearing it in the second pic with my 1.80m Dark grey, one size, 80% wool, €25 PU Amsterdam centrum, zeedijk

Facebook has become an important place to buy and sell second hand clothes in Amsterdam. Every day, dozens of persons post pictures of their second hand clothes, hoping to sell them. The transaction works as follows: the seller posts the ad and the pictures, and then if somebody is interested, they need to send a private message through Facebook. In

50 the private message one can ask further questions about the item and make an appointment to pick it up.

I made several appointments this way, and it always worked wonderfully. Most people posting these type of ads are young women, so all of my appointments were with women in their 20s. All of them agreed to meet me either in their homes or in some place convenient for both. Most people do not mind if one does not buy the clothes after trying them on. Thus, this type of transaction is done in a relaxed and amicable way.

The latter again shows that these ways of making second hand clothes circulate in Amsterdam involve a much more personal, direct relation between the previous owner of the item and the new one. Actually, the previous owner delivers the piece of clothing directly in the new owner’s hands. The opposite happens in the case of the vintage shops and vintage/second hand markets, as one never gets to know anything about the story of the piece of clothing purchased, even when sometimes the traces of the previous owner and the way it was used are still present in the form of a smell, a stain, an unpicked button or some stitching.

B.’s open closet

“Hey girls! im selling a lot of clothes sizes S and M in my walk in wardrobe! Tops, Jackets, Dresses and jumpers, Prices between 6-15 euros. Please message me if you want to pass by the xx this afternoon! (Style: young, stylish and classic, with some hipster tops.)”

A very popular post in these Facebook pages is called “open closet”, which means that someone needs to discard their clothes, some or all of them, and is willing to invite people over to come and choose the clothes directly from their closets, usually at very cheap prices. While anonymity is the basis of some of the ways in which some clothes are left behind (dropping them in recycling bins or putting them in the garbage, for example), an open closet allows people to know who you are, where you live and why you are getting rid of these objects, hence it involves a big privacy negotiation. The closet is suddenly turned into a tiny, temporary shop.

The host of this particular open closet is a 23 years old woman who came to Amsterdam from Luxembourg to do her Bachelor in International Business Administration. Now she is getting prepared to start her Masters in Luxury Brand Management. During our meeting, I explained to her that the focus of my research are second hand and vintage clothes, which are undeniably very popular in Amsterdam; the massive presence of vintage clothing stores, markets and events related to these type of objects is very telling of their popularity. B. agreed with me in the latter, and in her opinion this trend has been generated by some famous personalities from the show business who started to wear vintage.

I think there’s always an IT person, famous person who starts wearing, I don’t know, old fashion coats, and then people see that in magazines and think it’s going to be a new trend and then you see other brands making vintage clothing, maybe even luxury brands, and…then you have also Zara copying it because of course, they are really successful with it, with their small prices. I think it starts like that.

In addition, she attributes the broad acceptance of this trend in the city to the free spirited people living in it.

Amsterdam of course is a good example…because people in general, but in Amsterdam a lot, they are very free, and free minded and you can basically do anything here. That’s why the vintage here is very popular. I don’t know how it started, but it’s definitely a big trend here. When I studied in Rotterdam, there were two or three big vintage shops but then when you come here, it’s crazy.

Even as a self-identified non second hand buyer, B. does expect to one day find the perfect Burberry trench coat for her. She has looked for it in Paris, at stores that specialize only on this item. That is, she says, the only vintage item that she really aspires to possess.

After a short conversation, we go to her closet. First she takes out the graduation dress that she has been keeping there for a year. It is a long black dress, with a full black lace skirt. She keeps it apart from the rest of the clothes in a suit bag to protect it. “No one touches it, but me.” So, in a way I felt honored to have been able not only to touch it, but to photograph it.

We put the dress on a white couch, where the detail of the black lace pops up. Afterwards, we proceeded to check the rest of the closet where a specific section has been separated for the clothes for sale. It is not such a big closet and it is shared with her boyfriend; the clothes from both of them are hanging there but B.’s clothes occupy more than 70% of the space, proving who of the couple more into clothes is. There are a lot of clothes hanging, others folded in shelfs. Every millimeter of the closet is full, with some clothes fighting their way into it at times.

Then, I asked her to show me the item/s of the closet that she likes the least, which is a sleeveless pale-pink top with a small velvet black bow in the middle. She bought it from a friend who had to move abroad, but she never wore it, “I have no attachment to it at all…I don’t know why I don’t wear it. This used to be really IN (the bow), but not anymore. If it didn’t have that, I’d probably wear it”, she said. Months after the interview, I have seen many new posts from B. on Facebook selling more clothes, some of which I can identify. That top that she did not like is still on sale.

This open closet was B.’s first open closet. One day, she decided that she needed to get rid of some clothes and the most important aspect that she took into consideration in order to decide which clothes had to go, was the regularity of use. If she had not worn the item for a while, it would go with other similar items to a big bag and it would later on be sold in the open closet event.

Six people have visited my closet so far.

Me: And how did you feel about their visits?

Sometimes I see people picking up shirts, that I don’t know, I’ve worn a lot or had for many years and I don’t know…it’s weird. When people are going through my closet, and then they get all excited and say “oh, this is so nice!” then I think, “yes, it is!” and think to myself “should I keep it?” (Laughs)

The expensive or unique items were not included in the sorting process made before the open closet, even when they fall into the “never been worn” category.

I have some dresses that I’ve never worn, and the dress that I am going to wear on my graduation day that I bought a year ago that I showed you…I have a connection with those dresses because I think they are so beautiful and I don’t think I will find one nicer. Even though it’s just for one occasion…and it’s expensive.

Somehow the need to keep clothing circulating due to the motives B. explained to me, had managed to knock down certain boundaries, making clothes less of a private object. Gosden and Marshal (1999) cited Strathern (1988) and her research about Melanesian sociability, in which she argues that Melanesian people “see objects as the detached parts of people, circulating through the social body in complex ways. People are not just multiple, they are also distributed. A person is ultimately composed by all the objects they have made and transacted and these objects represent the sum total of their agency. A person’s agency may then have effects at a quite considerable distance from the individual’s body and may continue to have effects after they are dead.” While Gosden and Marshall argue that the latter differs greatly from a Western set of mind about what objects are, the situations described in this part of the chapter involving these specific type of transactions, reveal that

53 that is actually not necessarily the case. These interactions actually connect the old and new owners of objects in a direct way that transcends a commercial exchange as it involves a strong presence of intimacy, stories, memories and shared values that will be passed on from the seller to the buyer and then maybe again to somebody else.

“DON’T DITCH IT, STICH IT”

When I saw the small book that Z. had made with the photographs that she took of the textiles that her family had used, reused and mended for decades, a feeling of nostalgia was inevitable. That tiny little book was prepared by Z. after both of her parents passed away years ago and before their house was cleaned and emptied. She went to their house in Britain and took back with her some of their clothes, which she still keeps in her closet.

This is my brothers and sisters cultural capital, this is what we share. I made 5 of these and gave them each one. It’s like a recognition of what we share together.

The book contained pictures of towels, cloths and pieces of clothing that had been a part of her family since she was a child. It is remarkable that Z. and her siblings are able to recognize every piece of fabric of that book. The fact that a family conserved their clothes for decades, not necessarily as cloths for domestic use, but as actual clothes that were mended over and over again, demonstrates that there was a time when people in Europe were not discarding their clothes so easily. That time was the II World War. The crisis made it mandatory to take care of their possessions as much as they could, and such need was shared by a whole nation, through what was called the “make do and mend movement”. At that time, the government of Britain was encouraging their citizens to repair their clothes, give them a new use if they were too old or transform them: a skirt into a blouse, a pair of pants into a skirt.33

Mending was a regular activity in Z.’s home when she was a child. Her mother would never stop mending, even when the difficult times were over.

33 Source: http://make-do-and-mend.org/make_do_mend.html

My mother was really good at mending. They were mending forever, right until the end, when they could hardly see anymore. See, this is a nice mend (shows me), these are some delicate little mends (shows me)…mending the edge of towels, you know, now you just go to the Hema and buy a new one …, these are another pair of shorts similar to the ones I showed you and this is my father’s favorite jersey I told you about, there’s hardly anything of it left but he loved the fact that my mum kept mending, mending it and mending it (laughs.)

The stiches made by her mother in a pair of shorts were still visible, as I could see for myself when going through Z.’s closet. Actually, there were stiches in several places but the shorts resisted time and use and the fabric still looks impeccable. The same can be said about other pieces, like the beautiful brown coat that also belonged to her mother, who bought it in the 1940s.

I would photograph her closet and clothes while listening to her stories.

I always have an antenna for clothes…maybe it’s sort of action-reaction. I loved the way my mother dressed, but she was utterly disinterested in clothing. And she never matched any colors or anything. She was entirely practical…on the one hand I found that incredibly liberating, and on the other hand she’d wear old pairs of trousers that my brothers would leave around. She didn’t give a damn. Her mother was always impeccably dressed, and beautiful dresses, and matching jewelry, and even up to her mid-80s she was always very carefully dressed

An example of the type of pants which Z.’s mother would steal from her son is still in Z.’s closet. They are white and the fabric is corduroy; they are obviously men pants. As for her father’s clothes, she still keeps a pair of his military shorts which have a few stiches but not as many of the pink shorts she displayed before.

The clothes in Z.’s family, even when they never left the family household, did circulate inside of it as hand-me-downs and other forms. Hence, there was a classification process happening indoors, in which there was an implicit awareness that every textile had to be reused.

I have always had second hand clothes. Actually, I have always had hand-me-down clothes. I am the youngest in a family of five, I’ve been used to have clothes handed me down. And I remember really clearly the day when I had my own vest! It was new. I wore it all day and night. It was so special that it was new. The hand me down wasn’t stigmatized in my family.

…my uncle gave me some money and I went out and bought a bright red pair of hot pants, and they were polyester, you know, terrible! (Laughs) sort of plastic…

Palmskold (2015) says that in 1961 women in Sweden were sewing for approximately 5 hours a week (2015: 35), while she also argues that her informants also remember, just like Z., World War II “and the rationing of clothing and textiles that lasted in Sweden, as well as the rest of Europe, for some years after the war.”

Z. is in her 50s but has been living in Amsterdam already for 28 years. Her connection to her culture and family memories is deeply influenced by clothes. For instance, her father’s jersey that I saw on the picture (mentioned in her second comment) was completely wrecked, with threads coming out of everywhere and huge, very visible holes. Z. says that her father “looked like a tramp” in it (and then she laughed out loud). Even so, nobody would see him as a poor person, according to Z. She argues that there was a sort of inverted snobbery in Britain back then that had to do with old clothes. Such snobbery could be understood in the way Britons, who in to Z.’s words are very “class conscious”, believed that nouveau riche34, which people look down on, always wear new, smart and clean clothes. In her opinion, in Britain the more socially confident people feel and the higher socially they are, the more they are “allowed” to wear the most terrible old clothes.

So my father was a lawyer and a lawyer who earned very nicely and he was very socially confident and in the weekend he’d wear the most atrocious old clothes, shoes with holes in them…

Z. introduces the element of class in the use of second hand clothes, a factor that was already present in the previous story about the swap shop. Just like in that story, the clothes are acting as a reminder of a person’s position in society; but it is not just about the clothes themselves as object on a single moment of its ‘life’. I would argue that it is the clothes’ “trajectory” which should be observed to understand what Z. explained. In her father’s live, the clothes which ‘arrived’ in his household would stay there forever, never to be thrown away. Among the reasons behind that, it was the fact that her parents did not need to prove anything to anybody.

Z’s closet is as comfortable and cozy as the rest of her house. In her closet, some of the clothes are carefully organized in blue plastic compartments, and each of them has a sticker in which a category is written: summer or winter clothes. The clothes that are in the hanger are organized according to colors. Z. takes her favorite pieces of clothing out, and helps me finding the perfect spot for the pictures. “I likes things with a story, these are heritage clothes. It means a lot to me that he gave me this”, she said as she showed me the suit that had belonged to her son in law’s grandmother. “I think he gave it to me as a gesture, he was understanding the fact that my father’s suit got lost and it was an acknowledgement that was a pity.” As stated by her, her son in law lost a suit that belonged to her father, and felt the need to replace it with another “heritage” piece of clothing. The stories kept coming.

This cardigan was made for me in Britain and it’s quite simple but the story behind it is that I inherited a really nice jersey from my grandmother, very special, but it was very old so I took it to a lady and she knitted a new one based on the old pattern.

Remember when I told you that when I was growing up in the 60s, there was very little stuff around? And there was either home made things and some mass produced stuff, but not very much. So this (shows me a dress) was a really common kind of pattern for homemade jerseys.

34 This expression refers to people who have become rich recently, it is also known and it is translated as “new rich” or “new money”.

Obviously, Z. would never throw away her parent’s clothes. I admire how she has taken care of the clothes of her parents and her own. She still has in her closet dresses that she bought in the beginning of the 80s that look as good as new; a couple of beautiful original pieces from the 60s.

She has inherited the family tradition of mending and even has a sewing machine in her house, a knowledge that has been passed to her daughters too, with her youngest one (24 years old) making her own clothes very often. Plus, as many of my interviewees, Z. has developed her own particular system to get rid of her clothes.

I literally throw them into the corridor! (the clothes )Really, physically throw them (laughs.) Then I make a nice big pile and things that are really horrid, really crappy, I put them in one bag, and then the others in a big open bag and I invite my daughters to go through them to see if there’s anything they like, they get the first pickings. And if any friend is maybe passing by I tell them “help yourself”. If there’s really nice stuff that I think I could sell, then I take them to a vintage shop where they sale the things for you. They give you a percentage. Anything after that whole process I take to the charity shop

Even when she does stop sometimes by a vintage shop, Z. is not quite familiar with the concept of vintage, and as many previous interviewees, has difficulty to define it. By the time when she started buying second hand clothes, the term used was actually “jumble sales”.

I think in a sense I am sort of first generation vintage. The whole sort of vintage movement started as jumble sales, a spot to look for good things. To look for wool rather than acrylic, something that was stylish rather than banal, or good names…really good jumble sales would be when you found something like Chanel or something like that. So we looked for big names, and good leather shoes, those kind of things.

It wasn’t about the chronology of 60s, 70s, 80s and that came later, she argues. It was about good quality and design, which was easy to find in the 50s and 60s when clothes were truly made to last, as Z. remembers.

As I leave Z.’s house, I realize that I am taking with me a big part of her life in my camera. Even when I never met them, I felt overwhelmed by the strong presence of her parents.

Chapter conclusions

In order to answer to the main research question, this chapter has focused on the metamorphosis of clothes which occurs inside of the households and in places that are not connected with the vintage and second hand business circuit of the city, which was the focus before. It was necessary to observe the practices taking place when people in the city get rid of their clothes, a moment which I argue is also crucial to trigger the movement of clothes in Amsterdam. Additionally, I have included a new ‘place’ to be observed: the internet, as part of this circuit in which clothes are constantly transforming and changing their status.

In the first part of this chapter I described two places in which second hand clothes are being exchanged, the swap parties and a swap shop. The private swap parties I attended, of which one was mentioned in this chapter, have a strong motivation in common of renewing the wardrobe and getting together with close friends. The clothes are at the center of the parties, and need to be ‘swappable’ or ‘exchangeable’. Therefore, the ‘swap-ability’ of a piece of clothing becomes the fundamental characteristic of its status at this stage. Consequently, the category of vintage becomes relevant here again working in the same way as it did in the previous chapters, adding an extra value to second hand clothes, making them ‘swappable’ and extending the circulation of the knowledge about vintage to new places and networks of people outside of the ‘traditional’ vintage circuit described previously. At the swap shop the concept of vintage is apparently not of importance, however, there is also an intention to guarantee the ‘swap-ability’ of clothes by assuring the presence of people that are ‘fashionable’ at their parties. Additionally a new concept, ‘jumble sales’, emerges in this chapter as the predecessor of vintage.

All of these new networks of people in the city are actively involved in the sorting and exchange of second hand clothes through initiatives which aim to be more sustainable and fair. Nonetheless, the social transformation of clothes through these initiatives should not be ignored. For instance, the transformation of clothes from ‘charity objects’ to ‘swappable objects’ which was needed in order to make sure that they do not bring shame to the inhabitants of a neighborhood, revealing that there is a stigma attached to wearing used clothes that in this document only became visible through the story of the swap shop and in a different way, in Z.’s story as it shows that such stigma is carried only by certain groups and in particular contexts.

It is also relevant to notice how the swap shop manager took many measures to stop their clothes from turning into commodities, because swapping clothes is considered an ethically superior practice than buying and selling them. Along the same lines, the clothes in the ‘swap places’ are connected with the concept of ‘slow fashion’ as opposed to the dominating ‘disposable/fast fashion’. One could say that in all of these places the commodity status is considered a ‘lesser’ status which is seen in a negative way.

On the basis of the above, there is clearly an important worry in people’s lives: the sorting and discarding of the clothes they amass (Palmskod 2015: 32) and a number of strategies are deployed to solve that, not only via swapping. From what I have observed, firstly, there is a spatial problem which in most of the cases forces people to start a sorting process in their closets to get rid of some clothes. Secondly, the clothes are categorized and those better valued will usually stay within the intimate circle of the person (friends and family) as hand- me-downs or swaps. On a final stage the clothes are either donated via the recycling bins or charity shops, or put back in the market reselling them in consignation shops or the internet (Facebook).

None of the prior household strategies to do away with clothes included fixing them, which shows that the knowledge of altering, patching and mending clothes, quite important in the past, is not present in this circuit, except in Z.’s story. With regard to the latter, the context proves to be of great importance when trying to understand the journey of clothes and other objects, since in times of scarcity and crisis (like the Second World War), people will try to extend the life of an object, and to reuse it as much as possible instead of eliminate it. Evidently, the context in which this research was conducted is one in which an incalculable quantity of clothes is being thrown away constantly; there is no such thing as dearth. Since I have emphasized the role of the place or material frame where the clothes are kept as a fundamental factor in terms of their biography, there was the need to explore an obviously important place for clothes: people’s closets. There are certain meanings, practices and narratives attached to them when they start being part of someone’s wardrobe and their status as a commodity ends. I have observed how, when in people’s closets, clothes can be a memory device that offers a certain feeling of safety and stability needed at the times when the memories vanish and one longs for a material proof of someone’s or one’s own existence. Those memories are not only carried by the clothes; clothes also do maintain and reinforce them. The status of ‘heritage’ emerged on this part, as clothes who are seen as the ‘material capital’ of a family. Of course, an analysis of the circulation of clothes inside of a house cannot overlook its status as ‘hand-me- downs’, which is also a way of recycling them. In the same manner, the circulation of second hand clothes in the city has transformed a particular material frame, which is the closet. The existence of a concept like the ‘open closet’ and the fact that the swap shop is also known as a ‘public wardrobe’ shows, firstly, that there is a negotiation of privacy taking place, transforming a former intimate space into a public one, while at the same time a public space (the shop) is transformed into someone’s private closet. In their efforts to make the clothes move, some people have transformed the concept of the closet. On another note, whenever I requested people to show me their least or most cherished pieces of clothing, the answers would come fast and easily. All of my interviewees knew exactly, without a doubt, everything about every piece of clothing in their closet; they knew the biography of their clothes. They had all assigned a place for every piece of clothing in a hierarchy, which was expressed in the way the closet was organized. All of them kept track of the trajectory of their clothes. The latter is relevant as it demonstrates that some people might see their clothes, and possibly other objects, as holders of something similar to a life, which means that there are certain expectations attached to them when they are purchased, inherited and used, expectations which are analyzed by the owner throughout the life of the object and when put together, might allow to construct its biography.

General conclusions

Second hand clothes are singular objects. While preparing my research proposal I considered many ways to study these particular objects, but all along I knew I wanted to tell their story. Then I came across Kopytoff and his text about the ‘cultural biography of things’.

In order to answer the research question and through the metaphor of second hand clothes having a biography, I have described in the previous chapters their ‘life, death and resurrection’; hence, I have used this metaphor even in the language and the writing style. The focus throughout the whole document was on the object, which in this case were the clothes. However, I did not follow one particular piece of clothing, but second hand clothes as a group of objects that are being constantly moved to different places of the city, changing their status relentlessly. For three months, I made sure to keep track of the numerous metamorphosis occurring when second hand clothes migrate from a recycling bin to a vintage clothing distributor, from a vintage clothing store to a second hand market, from someone’s closet to a swap party or even when they move inside of a home or a family story. When trying to describe the transformation of clothes from second hand to vintage (‘on becoming vintage’), trying to explain the life of a vintage piece of clothing out of the warehouse (‘on being vintage’) or using a narrative that is focused on a simulated, metaphorical ‘experience of the clothes’ (on being discarded, exchanged, treasured or preserved), I explored their social life.

The latter was analysed in the framework of material culture studies, especially with the contributions of Daniel Miller in this field with his ‘theory of things’, in which the objects are at the centre of the analysis and their role is seen as integral to people’s actions. Additionally, Kopytoff’s biographical approach influenced this thesis immensely - theoretically and methodologically. Both Miller and Kopytoff have challenged Western ideas about the separation of the worlds of people and things, which they believe is not as radical as we might have thought. I have embraced the same challenge in this thesis, trying to give the objects a ‘life, a death and a resurrection’ and to narrate their story in a similar way as I would have narrated the story of a person. There are, however, methodological implications to such enterprise.

The methodological decisions made during this process were based on a need to firstly emphasize the agency of the object, understood as its role in a network of actors and the relationship between them (Miller 2005: 12). Secondly, the focus of the research would be on the materiality of second hand clothes, meaning that the methodology should not solely rely on incorporation of linguistic-based methods like interviews, much less prioritize them. Finally, the methodology had a strong connection to what Kopytoff developed as the different stages of the social career of things, and the latter needed to also highlight the trajectory of second hand clothes, the fact that they are moving objects which were not

60 going to be observed at a single moment of their life. Nevertheless, such trajectories were not lineal, and it was not my intention to say so.

So, as to design a methodology which would accomplish the latter, I included first the methodological proposal of wardrobe studies. Throughout this thesis, I have described in a detailed way the places, the fabrics, the senses, the shapes and the practices taking place in the material frames in which second hand and vintage clothes are kept and organized. Additionally, I have referred to the knowledge behind the different systems of classification of second hand clothes.

Yet, even when I found the latter successful in terms of accounting for the materiality of second hand clothes, the worry about the text not being enough as a medium to tell the story of these objects was always a key concern. By virtue of this, photography was incorporated not only as a method to register information but as a medium to the study of materiality; as a discourse of the ‘silent things’ (Hirschauer 2007). Therefore, throughout this thesis, there is a dialogue with the visual where the pictures are not just an illustration but I argue that they are also material frames through which things, second hand clothes in this case, prolong their lives. Though, considering that the visual ought to still focus on the material aspect, I approached this issue from the perspective of the link between digital anthropology and materiality.

Finally, by putting a blog on the air I made a part of this process, the visual one, public and secured a place in which these images would continue to circulate as opposed to remain only as an accessory to the methods used for this research. The more traditional methods like interviews and observation were also relevant, yet not considered the only source of the story of these clothes. The latter means that all of the elements in the methodological framework demonstrate an effort to balance what people were saying about the objects with the observation of the objects themselves (how are they placed in a shop? are they lying on a pile on the floor or exposed on the window? which materials prevail or stand out?). The previous chapters have information which originates from both sources, but I must insist in the role of photographs in sometimes expressing the ‘discourse’ of the object in a more successful way.

Directly related to the latter is the fact that an important part of this reasearch was the blog created for it (www.clothingtales.wordpress.com35). The stories narrated in the three chapters of this thesis were turned into posts for this blog, meaning that part of my findings were made public in an early stage of this process. However, the main objective of the blog was to show mostly the visual part of the research, and it was designed as a photographic essay with the objects being, then again, the main topic, showing only very few pictures of people. The use of photography was a deliberated decision aimed to support the critiques from the authors mentioned in the introduction of this document, regarding the superiority of language over other forms of expression (Edwards 2002). A critique which I have embraced by introducing a strong visual component to this research, in which not only the materiality of second hand clothes is expressed, but also in which their biographies can continue through the new interactions created thanks to the vast reach the internet has. Additionally, these photographs played an important role in my relationship with my informants, who were able to follow the development of the research and see first hand what was being said and analyzed about their lives. The latter was heavily influenced by a conscious desire to make the ‘’public Anthropology” Pink was referring to (2014), and to challenge the power relations which are normally established between the anthropologists and their ‘informants’. Nonetheless, very few informants actually either followed the blog often or attemped to influence its contents. All of them were completely comfortable with their stories and pictures being posted online, which surprised me. Most of the feedback I received about the blog came from fellow scholars and photographers who shared my images in social media.

Regarding the theoretical framework, in my opinion the shift of material culture to the object and the ‘transgressing’ ideas of Daniel Miller and others authors mentioned in this thesis referring to objects as ‘actors’ having ‘agency’ is challenging, but I do believe that my main goal, to tell the story of second hand clothes in Amsterdam, was benefited from the aim of these authors to draw attention to the objects and the material world.

35 The blog received a total of 1,328 visits.

In the particular case of Amsterdam, second hand clothes have been a regular presence in the city for decades, and while many of the reasons as to why that has happened have been briefly explained in the previous chapters, there is no denying of the network of relations that have been created in the city as a result of that. Moreover, I would argue that the regular presence of these objects in the city has resulted in a very particular way to deal with second hand objects in Amsterdam, from a business point of view, but also inside of people’s households. The massive presence of these objects in the city obliges many people to engage in practices aimed at regulating this, with people commercializing them, while others deploying a series of strategies reuse them. The volume of second hand clothes is so enormous, that it is impossible to ignore it, whether one wants to make a living out of it, is willing to contribute to recycle it, and solely desires access to the unexpected treasures that may be found or is dealing on a regular basis with the organization of the clothes in the household. Amsterdam is ‘buried’ under a sea of second hand clothes, and this inexorable fact is determining many people’s lives. However, the biography of second hand clothes is one which transcends the limits of Amsterdam and The Netherlands, as these objects continue migrating to different parts of the world constantly as part of this hectic circulation of clothes triggered by the abundance of these objects in cities like Amsterdam. Consequently, what was shown in this thesis of that biography is a small glimpse of it, also based on the micro-every day practices in which a group of people is engaged in relation to second hand clothes. The ‘big picture’, which is the international trade of second hand clothes from Europe to other countries and continents, was mentioned in the introduction and while it is extremely relevant, I decided to put my attention in the stories of the clothes at a smaller scale, in a market stall, a vintage shop or a closet. And I believe that those ‘smaller’’ stories have managed to reveal much about what I have called ‘the bigger picture’. Just like we anthropologists do when constructing a life story, I have chosen the side of the story that I wanted to tell, and as it happens with people’s lives, the lives of objects are never static and have many faces.

On the other hand, throughout this document I have stressed the relevance of the concept of vintage in the circulation of second hand clothes in the city, by creating a hierarchy of clothes which also influences the knowledge that is being disseminated about second hand clothes in Amsterdam. I argue that the existence of this concept is crucial to understand the whole circuit where second hand clothes migrate in Amsterdam and probably other western cities.

I will not repeat in this part the many transformations which second hand clothes in Amsterdam go through, which have been described in a detailed way in the 3 chapters of this thesis. Yet, I would like to emphasize that those changes in status which I have observed in clothes are also a result of having followed the biography metaphor. The attention to the movement of the clothes was decisive, and it also allowed me to show the many stories accumulated in objects during that trajectory. Those stories are also a testimony of social

63 action and of how the lives of people and things occur together in a parallel manner, which tie them together in an inevitable way.

With this thesis, I argue that it is possible to embark in research which puts the objects central as a way to understand what role they play in people’s lives and different societies. This approach also demonstrates how certain categories are not stable, how things are changing all the time, which at the end of the day means that by observing the movement of things, we can understand social change.

References

DeLonge, Marilyn / Heinemann, Barbara / Relley, Kathryn. 2005. Hooke on Vintage!Fashion Theory, Volume 9, Issue 1: pp. 23-42.

Downing, Lauren. 2014. Performing Vintage: The cultivation and dissemination of vintage sensibilities at the Brooklyn Flea: Canadian Review of American Studies, Volume 44, Number 2, Summer 2014: pp. 214-239.

Edwards, Elizabeth / Hart, Janice. 2004. Photographs Objects Histories. On the Materiality of Images. pp. 1-15.

Edwards, Elizabeth. 2002. Material beings and ethnographic photographs: Visual Studies. Volume 17, No. 1: pp. 65-77.

Eicher, B. Joanne. 2001. Dressing and preening the body. Reviews in Anthropology, 29:3, pp. 273-292

Eicher, B. Joanne. 2001. The cultural significance of dress and textiles. Reviews in Anthropology, 30:4, pp. 309-323

Grimstad, Klepp / Bjerck, Mari. 2014. A methodological approach to the materiality of clothing: Wardrobe studies. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. 17:4, pp. 373-386.

Hirschauer, Stefan. 2007. Putting things into words. Ethnographic description and the silence of the social. Springer Science+Business Media. BV. Pp. 413-441.

Horst, Heather / Miller Daniel. 2012. Normativity and Materiality: A view from digital anthropology. Media International Australia, No. 145, November: pp. 103-109.

Kopytoff, Igor. 1986. The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process. From The Social Life of Things. Edited by Arjun Appadurai. University of Pennsylvania. Pp. 64-91.

McColl, Julie / Canning, Catherine / McBride, Louise / Nobbs, Karina / Shearer, Linda. 2013. It´s Vintage Darling! An exploration of vintage fashion retailing. The Journal of The Textile Institute, Vol 104, No. 2: pp. 140-150.

Miller Daniel, 2007. Materiality: pp. 1-50.

Miller, Daniel / Verstraete, Ginette. 2011. Theory Culture & Society, Anthropology and the Individual: A Material Culture Perspective, pp. 28-155.

Miller, Daniel. 2010. Stuff. pp. 1-80.

Miller, Daniel / Clarke, Alison. 2002. Fashion and anxiety. Fashion Theory. Volume 6, Issue 2, pp. 191-214.

Palmsköld, Anneli. 2015. Reusing Textiles: On Material and Cultural Wear and Tear: Culture Unbound, Journal of Current Culture Research, Volume 7: pp. 31-43.

Pink, Sarah. 2011. Images, Senses and Applications: Engaging Visual Anthropology. Visual Anthropology: Published in cooperation with the Commission on Visual Anthropology. 24:5, pp. 437-454.

Tranberg, Karen. 1995. Transnational Biographies and Local Meanings: Used Clothing Practices in Lusaka. Journal of Southern African Studies, Volume 21, Number 1, Special Issue: pp. 131-145.

Tranberg Hansen, Karen. 2000. Other People's Clothes? The International Second-hand Clothing Trade and Dress Practices in Zambia. Fashion Theory, Volume 4, Issue 3. pp. 245- 274.

Tranberg Hansen, Karen. 2004. The world in dress: Anthropological Perspectives on Clothing, Fashion, and Culture. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 33:369-92.

Annex 1: 300 VINTAGE CATEGORIES AS DESCRIBED IN CHAPTER 1.

BAGS CANVAS BACKPACKS

BAGS CLASSIC HANDBAGS (REPTILE, ETC.)

BAGS COTTON SHOPPING BAGS WITH PRINT

BAGS EASTPACK BAGS/BACKPACKS

BAGS ENVELOP HANDBAGS

BAGS ETHNIC PRINT BAGS

BAGS EVENING HANDBAGS

BAGS GOLD & SILVER HANDBAG

BAGS HIPPIE BAGS COTTON

BAGS HIPPIE BAGS LEATHER

BAGS LEATHER BACKPACKS/BUMBAGS

BAGS LEATHER BRIEFCASES

BAGS LEATHER HANDBAG MIX

BAGS SHINY PU HANDBAGS

BAGS SPORTBAGS

BAGS STRAW BAGS

BAGS TAPESTRY BAGS

BAGS TRAVEL BAGS

BELTS 80'S LADIES BELTS ELASTIC

BELTS 80'S LADIES BELTS LEATHER

BELTS BLACK BELTS

BELTS BRADED BELTS MEN

BELTS BROWN BELTS A

BELTS GOLD & SILVER BELTS/METALLIC BELTS ACC26

BELTS LEATHER MONEYBELTS ACC27

BELTS NYLON MONEYBELTS ACC28

BELTS THIN BELTS (LADIES) ACC29

BELTS WESTERN BELTS ACC30

DECORATION 70'S CURTAINS DEC01

DECORATION AMSTERDAM WHITE LACE MIX DEC02

DECORATION SHEEPSKIN HIDES DEC03

DECORATION VELVET CURTAINS DEC04

HEADWEAR BERETS ACC40

HEADWEAR COWBOY HATS ACC42

HEADWEAR FUNKY HATS MIX ACC43

HEADWEAR FUR HATS FUR03

HEADWEAR IMITATION FUR HATS FUR05

HEADWEAR JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE/THRILBY HATS ACC44

HEADWEAR LADIES FELT HATS ACC45

HEADWEAR LEATHER/SUEDE HATS ACC46

HEADWEAR MENS FELT HATS ACC47

HEADWEAR MESH CAPS/BASEBALL CAPS ACC48

HEADWEAR RUSSIAN FUR HATS WITH FLAPS FUR06

HEADWEAR TWEED MENS CAPS ACC49

HEADWEAR WOOL KNIT CAPS ACC50

HEADWEAR WOOL SKI HATS ACC51

MISCELLANEOUS 70'S TIES ACC60

MISCELLANEOUS BANDERA'S COTTON ACC80

-- 2 --

Category Description Itemcode

Accessories

MISCELLANEOUS BARBIE DOLLS ACC61

MISCELLANEOUS BATHING SUITS/SWIMMING TRUNKS ACC62

MISCELLANEOUS FUR COLLARS FUR02

MISCELLANEOUS JEWELRY ACC89

MISCELLANEOUS LEATHER GLOVES ACC64

MISCELLANEOUS LEATHER TIES ACC65

MISCELLANEOUS STRAW FILLED ANIMAL DOLLS ACC67

MISCELLANEOUS SUSPENDERS ACC68

SHAWLS BANDERA'S COTTON ACC80

SHAWLS CHECK SCARVES ACC81

SHAWLS FLORAL GIPSY SCARVES ACC82

SHAWLS HIPPIE SCARVES ACC83

SHAWLS LADIES SILK SCARVES ACC84

SHAWLS MENS SILK SCARVES ACC85

SHAWLS PALESTINA SHAWLS ACC86

SHAWLS SOCCER SHAWLS ACC87

SHAWLS STRIPED COLLEGE SHAWLS ACC88

SHAWLS TRIANGLE KNIT SHAWLS ACC89

SHAWLS WOOL KNIT LONG SHAWLS ACC90

-- 3 --

Category Description Itemcode

Clothing

DRESSES 70'S/80'S DRESS DRE01

DRESSES 90'S DRESSES DRE03

DRESSES AFRICAN DRESSES/KAFTANS DRE04

DRESSES DENIM SALOPETTE SHORTS SHR04

DRESSES DENIM SALOPETTE SKIRTS SKI05

DRESSES EVENING DRESSES DRE06

DRESSES FLORAL DRESSES RAYON/COTTON DRE07

DRESSES JEANS DRESSES DRE16

DRESSES JUMPSUITS/JUMPSHORTS DRE08

DRESSES MAXI DRESSES DRE09

DRESSES PARTY DRESSES DRE10

DRESSES PENCIL DRESSES DRE11

DRESSES SLIPDRESS/UNDERDRESS DRE12

DRESSES US DRESS MIX DRE13

DRESSES VELVET DRESSES DRE16

DRESSES WEDDING DRESSES DRE14

DRESSES WINTER DRESSES DRE15

FURS FUR COATS & JACKETS FUR01

FURS FUR COLLARS FUR02

FURS FUR HATS FUR03

FURS IMITATION FUR COATS & JACKETS FUR04

FURS IMITATION FUR HATS FUR05

FURS LEATHER/SUEDE HATS ACC46

FURS RUSSIAN FUR HATS WITH FLAPS FUR06

JEANS CORDUROY JEANS/MODERN BRANDS JEA02

JEANS CORDUROY JEANS/OLD SCHOOL BRANDS JEA01

JEANS DIESEL JEANS MEN JEA21

JEANS FLARE JEANS LADIES/MODERN BRANDS JEA03

JEANS FLARE JEANS MEN/BRANDS JEA04

JEANS G-STAR JEANS MEN JEA05

JEANS JEANS MIX MEN MODERN BRANDS/NR. 1 JEA07

JEANS JEANS MIX NR. 2/3/BRANDS JEA06

JEANS JEANS MIX STRAIGHT LADIES/MODERN BRANDS JEA08

JEANS LEE BLUE JEANS JEA09

JEANS LEVIS 5/6 SERIES BLUE NR.1 JEA10

JEANS LEVIS 501 BLACK/WHITE NR.1 JEA11

JEANS LEVIS 501 BLACK/WHITE NR.2/3 JEA12

JEANS LEVIS 501 BLUE NR.1 MEN SIZE JEA13

JEANS LEVIS 501 BLUE NR.2 JEA15

JEANS LEVIS 501 BLUE NR.3 JEA16

JEANS LEVIS BLUE NR.1/2 LADIES SIZE JEA14

JEANS MADONNA JEANS JEA20

JEANS SALOPETTE JEANS BRANDS JEA17

JEANS SKINNY JEANS BRANDS JEA18

JEANS WRANGLER BLUE JEANS JEA19

LADIES BLOUSES 70'S COTTON PRINT BLOUSE LBL01

LADIES BLOUSES 70'S POLYESTER PRINT BLOUSE LBL02

LADIES BLOUSES 80/90'S BUTTERFLY BLOUSE LBL03

-- 4 --

Category Description Itemcode

Clothing

LADIES BLOUSES 90'S RAYON PRINT BLOUSE LBL10

LADIES BLOUSES BELLY BUTTON BLOUSE LBL04

LADIES BLOUSES COTTON ETHNIC/HIPPIE TOPS LBL05

LADIES BLOUSES COTTON LACE WHITE TOPS LBL06

LADIES BLOUSES FRILL BLOUSE LBL07

LADIES BLOUSES SILK BLOUSE LBL08

LADIES BLOUSES WESTERN STYLE BLOUSE LBL09

LADIES KNITWEAR 70'S LADIES CARDIGANS KSW14

LADIES KNITWEAR 70'S STRETCH TOPS LONG SLEEVE KSW01

LADIES KNITWEAR 70'S STRETCH TOPS SHORT SLEEVE KSW02

LADIES KNITWEAR 80'S TOPS LONG SLEEVE KSW03

LADIES KNITWEAR 80'S TOPS SHORT SLEEVE KSW04

LADIES KNITWEAR 90'S LADIES SWEATERS/CARDIGANS KSW05

LADIES KNITWEAR COTTON KNIT SWEATERS KSW06

LADIES KNITWEAR CRAZY PRINT LADIES SWEATER KSW16

LADIES KNITWEAR CROP SWEATERS KSW12

LADIES KNITWEAR ETHNIC WOOL SWEATER UNI KSW33

LADIES KNITWEAR FLEECE JACKETS UNI KSW31

LADIES KNITWEAR HEAVY LUREX MIX KSW07

LADIES KNITWEAR LADIES CARDIGANS ACRYLIC/WOOL KSW08

LADIES KNITWEAR LUREX STRETCH TOPS KSW09

LADIES KNITWEAR MOHAIR SWEATERS/CARDIGANS KSW10

LADIES KNITWEAR PONCHO'S KNITWEAR KSW11

LADIES KNITWEAR TIROL LADIES CARDIGANS KSW15

LADIES KNITWEAR TURTLE NECK SWEATER KSW13

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS 70'S SUMMER SHORT JACKETS LLJ05

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS 90'S LADY JACKETS LLJ09

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS 90'S RAINCOATS LLJ01

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS 90'S US LADIES CRAZY SUITJACKETS LLJ07

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS BOLERO JACKETS LLJ10

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS CRAZY LIGHT JACKET LLJ02

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS CROP JEANS JACKETS LLJ08

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS DENIM JACKETS BRANDS UNI MLJ04

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS DENIM JACKETS NON-BRAND 80'S UNI MLJ05

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS FITTED RAINCOATS UNICOLOR LLJ03

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS LADIES VELVET JACKETS LLJ04

LADIES LIGHT JACKETS WINTER SHORT JACKETS LLJ06

LADIES TOPS 80'S T-SHIRTS/TOPS LTP01

LADIES TOPS ANIMAL PRINT MIX MIX02

LADIES TOPS BODY STOCKINGS LTP04

LADIES TOPS HEAVY LUREX MIX KSW07

LADIES TOPS HOODED FITTED LADIES SWEATSHIRTS SPR22

LADIES TOPS JEANS GILETS MTP15

LADIES TOPS LADIES GILETS LTP02

LADIES TOPS LADIES TANKTOPS LTP03

LADIES TOPS LUREX STRETCH TOPS KSW09

LADIES TOPS STRETCH VELVET MIX MIX17

LADIES TOPS VELVET SWEATERS MTP14

-- 5 --

Category Description Itemcode

Clothing

LADIES WINTER COATS 70/80'S FITTED LADIES WINTER COATS LWC01

LADIES WINTER COATS 90'S SKI ANORAK/JACKETS LADIES LWC04

LADIES WINTER COATS 90'S SKIPARKA'S LADIES SPR17

LADIES WINTER COATS DOWN BODY WARMERS UNI MWC02

LADIES WINTER COATS DOWN JACKETS UNI MIX MIX05

LADIES WINTER COATS FUR COATS & JACKETS FUR01

LADIES WINTER COATS IMITATION FUR COATS & JACKETS FUR04

LADIES WINTER COATS LADIES 90'S WINTERCOATS LWC02

LADIES WINTER COATS LADIES SHEEPSKIN COATS LEA12

LADIES WINTER COATS LEATHER PARKA LEA30

LADIES WINTER COATS PONCHO'S KNITWEAR KSW11

LADIES WINTER COATS SKI JACKETS 70'80'S UNI SPR15

LADIES WINTER COATS WOOL CAPES LWC03

LEATHERS 70'S LADIES LEATHER JACKETS&COATS LEA01

LEATHERS 70'S MENS LEATHER JACKETS&COATS LEA02

LEATHERS 70S NAPPA LEATHER TRENCHCOATS LEA31

LEATHERS 80'S LEATHER ZIP JACKETS LEA04

LEATHERS 80'S LEATHER PANTS LEA03

LEATHERS 90'S LADIES LEATHER BUTTERFLY COATS LEA05

LEATHERS 90'S LEATHER BOLERO JACKETS LEA06

LEATHERS 90'S LEATHER ZIP JACKETS LEA27

LEATHERS 90'S SUEDE WOOL ZIP JACKETS MWC11

LEATHERS 90'S SUEDE ZIP JACKETS LEA29

LEATHERS AZTEC COATS MWC06

LEATHERS BOMBER JACKETS THICK LEATHER LEA08

LEATHERS CARCOATS THICK LEATHER LEA09

LEATHERS COLORED MOTORJACKETS LADIES (OLD SCHOOL) LEA28

LEATHERS COLORED MOTORJACKETS MEN (OLD SCHOOL) LEA23

LEATHERS FITTED BLACK MOTORJACKETS LEA10

LEATHERS FRINGE JACKETS LEA11

LEATHERS LADIES SHEEPSKIN COATS LEA12

LEATHERS LEATHER LADIES CLOTHING MIX LEA14

LEATHERS LEATHER PARKA LEA30

LEATHERS LEATHER SKIRT MIX LEA15

LEATHERS LONG MOTORCOATS THICK LEATHER LEA16

LEATHERS MENS SHEEPSKIN COATS LEA17

LEATHERS MODERN LEATHER MOTORJACKETS WITH BUMPERS LEA18

LEATHERS MODERN MOTORJACKETS THICK LEATHER LEA19

LEATHERS MOTOR PANTS BLACK LACES (501 MODEL) LEA21

LEATHERS NO COLLAR MOTORJACKETS BLACK LEA22

LEATHERS PERFECTO STYLE MOTORJACKETS LEA24

LEATHERS SUEDE JACKETS LEA25

LEATHERS SUEDE SHIRTS LEA26

LEATHERS THICK LEATHER GILETS LEA13

LEATHERS THIN LEATHER GILETS LEA33

LEATHERS TIROL LEDERHOSE LEA32

LEATHERS TREND NAPPA LEATHER JACKETS LEA20

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 70'S COTTON ZIP JACKETS MLJ03

-- 6 --

Category Description Itemcode

Clothing

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 70'S POLYESTER SPORTJACKETS BRAND SPR20

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 70'S POLYESTER SPORTJACKETS NON BRAND SPR01

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 70/80'S NYLON RAINJACKETS SPORTBRANDS SPR02

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 80'S COTTON ZIP JACKETS MLJ19

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 80'S POLYESTER SPORTJACKETS SPR03

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 80/90'S PARACHUTE/SHELL SPORTJACKETS SPR04

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 90'S LEATHER ZIP JACKETS LEA27

MEN LIGHT JACKETS 90'S SUEDE ZIP JACKETS LEA29

MEN LIGHT JACKETS BLUE WORKER JACKETS MLJ17

MEN LIGHT JACKETS CORDUROY SUIT JACKETS MLJ02

MEN LIGHT JACKETS DENIM JACKETS BRANDS UNI MLJ04

MEN LIGHT JACKETS DENIM JACKETS NON-BRAND 80'S UNI MLJ05

MEN LIGHT JACKETS FUNKY SUIT JACKETS MLJ06

MEN LIGHT JACKETS GERMAN GREY OFFICERS JACKETS MIL05

MEN LIGHT JACKETS HARRIS TWEED JACKETS MLJ07

MEN LIGHT JACKETS ITALIAN ARMY JACKETS MIL12

MEN LIGHT JACKETS MENS RAINCOATS MLJ08

MEN LIGHT JACKETS MEXICAN ANORAKS KSW27

MEN LIGHT JACKETS PADDED FLANEL SHIRTS MSH16

MEN LIGHT JACKETS QUILTED JACKETS MLJ09

MEN LIGHT JACKETS RUBBER RAINCOATS MLJ20

MEN LIGHT JACKETS SHINY BASEBALL JACKETS MLJ10

MEN LIGHT JACKETS SILK ZIP JACKETS MLJ11

MEN LIGHT JACKETS SMOKING SUIT JACKETS MLJ12

MEN LIGHT JACKETS SUITS MLJ13

MEN LIGHT JACKETS SWEDISH ARMY JACKETS MIL10

MEN LIGHT JACKETS TAIL JACKETS MLJ14

MEN LIGHT JACKETS UNIFORM JACKETS MLJ18

MEN LIGHT JACKETS VELVET SUIT JACKETS MLJ15

MEN LIGHT JACKETS WAX COATS MLJ16

MEN WINTER COATS 90'S SKI ANORAKS/JACKETS MEN SPR18

MEN WINTER COATS 90'S SUEDE WOOL ZIP JACKETS MWC11

MEN WINTER COATS AZTEC COATS MWC06

MEN WINTER COATS BASEBALL JACKET LEATHER SLEEVE MWC01

MEN WINTER COATS CANVAS WORKER JACKETS MWC07

MEN WINTER COATS DOWN BODY WARMERS UNI MWC02

MEN WINTER COATS DOWN JACKETS UNI MIX MIX05

MEN WINTER COATS DUFFELCOATS MWC03

MEN WINTER COATS FITTED WOOL COATS MWC04

MEN WINTER COATS GERMAN PARKA FLAG MIL06

MEN WINTER COATS GERMAN PARKA NO FLAG MIL07

MEN WINTER COATS MENS SHEEPSKIN COATS LEA17

MEN WINTER COATS NYLON BOMBER JACKETS MWC05

MEN WINTER COATS RUBBER RAINCOATS MLJ20

MEN WINTER COATS SKI JACKETS 70'80'S UNI SPR15

MEN WINTER COATS SPORTBRAND WINTER JACKETS SPR10

MEN WINTER COATS TEDDY LINED DENIM JACKETS MWC08

MEN WINTER COATS WOOL PEACOATS/CARCOATS MWC09

-- 7 --

Category Description Itemcode

Clothing

MEN WINTER COATS WOOL ZIP JACKETS MWC10

MENS KNITWEAR 70'S ACRYLIC V-NECK SWEATERS KSW20

MENS KNITWEAR 70'S MENS CARDIGANS KSW21

MENS KNITWEAR 80'S MENS CARDIGANS KSW22

MENS KNITWEAR 80'S MENS SWEATERS KSW23

MENS KNITWEAR ARAN SWEATERS KSW24

MENS KNITWEAR CRAZY PRINT MEN SWEATER KSW32

MENS KNITWEAR ETHNIC WOOL SWEATER UNI KSW33

MENS KNITWEAR FLEECE JACKETS UNI KSW31

MENS KNITWEAR LAMBSWOOL SWEATERS KSW25

MENS KNITWEAR MENS SPENCERS KSW26

MENS KNITWEAR MEXICAN ANORAKS KSW27

MENS KNITWEAR MILITARY SWEATERS MIL09

MENS KNITWEAR NORWAY/ICELAND SWEATERS KSW28

MENS KNITWEAR SKI SWEATERS KSW29

MENS KNITWEAR SUEDE FRONT CARDIGANS KSW30

MENS SHIRTS 70'S COTTON PRINT SHIRTS MSH01

MENS SHIRTS AZTEK PRINT SHIRTS MSH03

MENS SHIRTS BELGIAN ARMY SHIRTS MIL01

MENS SHIRTS BLACK SHIRTS MSH04

MENS SHIRTS BUTTON DOWN SHIRTS MSH05

MENS SHIRTS CHECK SHIRTS MSH06

MENS SHIRTS CORDUROY SHIRTS MSH07

MENS SHIRTS CRAZY PRINT SHIRTS LONG SLEEVE MSH08

MENS SHIRTS CRAZY PRINT SHIRTS SHORT SLEEVE MSH09

MENS SHIRTS DENIM SHIRTS BRANDS MSH10

MENS SHIRTS DENIM SHIRTS NON-BRAND MSH11

MENS SHIRTS FARMER SHIRTS MSH12

MENS SHIRTS FLANEL SHIRTS MSH13

MENS SHIRTS GINGHAM CHECK SHIRTS MSH19

MENS SHIRTS HAWAIIAN SHIRTS MSH14

MENS SHIRTS LINEN SHIRTS MSH20

MENS SHIRTS NEON UNICOLOR SHIRTS MSH15

MENS SHIRTS PADDED FLANEL SHIRTS MSH16

MENS SHIRTS SUEDE SHIRTS LEA26

MENS SHIRTS USA ARMY SHIRTS MIL13

MENS SHIRTS WESTERN SHIRTS MSH17

MENS SHIRTS WHITE SHIRTS MSH18

MENS TOPS 70'S T-SHIRTS/TANKTOPS MTP04

MENS TOPS ANIMAL PRINT T-SHIRTS MTP02

MENS TOPS BICYCLIST TOPS SPR06

MENS TOPS HOODED SWEATSHIRTS COTTON MTP03

MENS TOPS HOODED SWEATSHIRTS SPORTBRANDS SPR21

MENS TOPS JEANS GILETS MTP15

MENS TOPS MENS GILETS MTP05

MENS TOPS MUSCLE TOP MTP16

MENS TOPS POLYESTER KNIT POLO'S MTP06

MENS TOPS PRINT SWEATSHIRTS COTTON MTP07

-- 8 --

Category Description Itemcode

Clothing

MENS TOPS PRINTED T-SHIRTS (EU) MTP08

MENS TOPS ROCKBAND T-SHIRTS MTP09

MENS TOPS SKULL T-SHIRTS MTP11

MENS TOPS SOCCER SHIRTS SPR08

MENS TOPS SPORTBRAND SWEATSHIRTS MTP01

MENS TOPS SPORTBRAND T-SHIRTS COTTON SPR09

MENS TOPS THICK LEATHER GILETS LEA13

MENS TOPS TYE DYE T-SHIRTS MTP12

MENS TOPS USA PRINT T-SHIRTS MTP13

MENS TOPS USA SPORT SHIRTS SPR13

MENS TOPS VELVET SWEATERS MTP14

MILITARY BELGIAN ARMY SHIRTS MIL01

MILITARY FITTED DESERT ARMY SHIRT MLJ19

MILITARY GERMAN GREY OFFICERS JACKETS MIL05

MILITARY GERMAN PARKA FLAG MIL06

MILITARY GERMAN PARKA NO FLAG MIL07

MILITARY ITALIAN ARMY JACKETS MIL12

MILITARY MILITARY BOOTS BTS13

MILITARY MILITARY MIX MIX11

MILITARY MILITARY SWEATERS MIL09

MILITARY SWEDISH ARMY JACKETS MIL10

MILITARY UNIFORM JACKETS MLJ18

MILITARY USA ARMY SHIRTS MIL13

MILITARY USA CAMO PANTS MIL11

MILITARY WHITE ARMY SNEAKERS SHS27

SHORTS 80'S LADIES SHORTS HIGH WAIST SHR01

SHORTS CHECK SHORTS SHR02

SHORTS CRAZY SHORTS COTTON SHR03

SHORTS CULOTTES SKI04

SHORTS DENIM SALOPETTE SHORTS SHR04

SHORTS LADIES JEANS SHORTS SHR05

SHORTS MENS CARGO SHORTS SHR06

SHORTS MENS CHINO SHORTS SHR07

SHORTS MENS JEANS SHORTS SHR08

SHORTS MENS TENNIS SHORTS SPR07

SHORTS SHINY SPORT SHORTS SPR05

SKIRTS 70'S MAXI SKIRTS SUMMER SKI11

SKIRTS 70'S MAXI SKIRTS WINTER SKI12

SKIRTS 80'S SKIRTS SKI01

SKIRTS 90'S RAYON MAXI SKIRTS SKI21

SKIRTS A-LINE SKIRTS SUMMER SKI02

SKIRTS A-LINE SKIRTS WINTER SKI03

SKIRTS CULOTTES SKI04

SKIRTS DENIM SALOPETTE SKIRTS SKI05

SKIRTS ETHNIC SKIRTS WITH LACE BORDER SKI06

SKIRTS INDIA SKIRTS COTTON SKI08

SKIRTS JEANS SKIRTS SKI09

SKIRTS LACE SKIRTS WHITE COTTON SKI10

-- 9 --

Category Description Itemcode

Clothing

SKIRTS LEATHER SKIRT MIX LEA15

SKIRTS MINI SKIRTS SKI13

SKIRTS PENCIL SKIRTS SUMMER SKI20

SKIRTS PENCIL SKIRTS WINTER SKI21

SKIRTS PLEADED SKIRTS SUMMER SKI14

SKIRTS PLEADED SKIRTS WINTER SKI15

SKIRTS SCOTTISH KILTS SKI16

SKIRTS TENNIS SKIRTS SKI17

SKIRTS TIROLIAN SKIRTS SKI18

SKIRTS WRAP SKIRTS COTTON SKI19

SPORTSWEAR 70'S POLYESTER SPORTJACKETS BRAND SPR20

SPORTSWEAR 70'S POLYESTER SPORTJACKETS NON BRAND SPR01

SPORTSWEAR 70/80'S BASKETBALL SHOES SHS02

SPORTSWEAR 70/80'S NYLON RAINJACKETS SPORTBRANDS SPR02

SPORTSWEAR 70/80'S SPORTSHOES SHS03

SPORTSWEAR 80'S POLYESTER SPORTJACKETS SPR03

SPORTSWEAR 80/90'S PARACHUTE/SHELL SPORTJACKETS SPR04

SPORTSWEAR 90'S SKI ANORAK/JACKETS LADIES LWC04

SPORTSWEAR 90'S SKI ANORAKS/JACKETS MEN SPR18

SPORTSWEAR 90'S SKIPARKA'S LADIES SPR17

SPORTSWEAR ADIDAS SLIPPERS SPR19

SPORTSWEAR BICYCLIST TOPS SPR06

SPORTSWEAR HOODED FITTED LADIES SWEATSHIRTS SPR22

SPORTSWEAR HOODED SWEATSHIRTS SPORTBRANDS SPR21

SPORTSWEAR MENS TENNIS SHORTS SPR07

SPORTSWEAR MODERN ADIDAS MIX MIX16

SPORTSWEAR MODERN ADIDAS SPORTJACKETS UNI SPR14

SPORTSWEAR MODERN SPORT SHOES SHS18

SPORTSWEAR SHINY SPORT SHORTS SPR05

SPORTSWEAR SKI JACKETS 70'80'S UNI SPR15

SPORTSWEAR SKI SUITS 90'S UNI SPR16

SPORTSWEAR SOCCER SHIRTS SPR08

SPORTSWEAR SOCCER SHOES SHS21

SPORTSWEAR SPORTBAGS ACC16

SPORTSWEAR SPORTBRAND SWEATSHIRTS MTP01

SPORTSWEAR SPORTBRAND T-SHIRTS COTTON SPR09

SPORTSWEAR SPORTBRAND WINTER JACKETS SPR10

SPORTSWEAR SWEATPANTS COTTON SPR11

SPORTSWEAR TENNIS SKIRTS SKI17

SPORTSWEAR TRACKPANTS POLYESTER SPORTBRANDS SPR12

SPORTSWEAR USA SPORT SHIRTS SPR13

TROUSERS 80'S LEATHER PANTS LEA03

TROUSERS CHECK PANTS POLYESTER TRS01

TROUSERS CORDUROY JEANS/MODERN BRANDS JEA02

TROUSERS CORDUROY JEANS/OLD SCHOOL BRANDS JEA01

TROUSERS COTTON PRINT LEGGINGS TRS10

TROUSERS LADIES 80'S PANTS TRS02

TROUSERS MENS BRAND PANTS 5-POCKET LIGHT MATERIAL TRS05

-- 10 --

Category Description Itemcode

Clothing

TROUSERS MENS CHINO PANTS TRS06

TROUSERS MOTOR PANTS BLACK LACES (501 MODEL) LEA21

TROUSERS NERD PANTS POLYESTER STRAIGHT LEG TRS08

TROUSERS SHINY PRINT LEGGINGS TRS04

TROUSERS SWEATPANTS COTTON SPR11

TROUSERS TERLENCA LADY PANTS TRS09

TROUSERS TIROL LEDERHOSE LEA32

TROUSERS TRACKPANTS POLYESTER SPORTBRANDS SPR12

TROUSERS USA CAMO PANTS MIL11

-- 11 --

Category Description Itemcode

Footwear

BOOTS CHELSEA BOOTS BTS28

BOOTS COLORED MOTORCYCLE BOOTS BTS02

BOOTS COWBOY BOOTS LADIES (EU) BTS03

BOOTS COWBOY BOOTS MEN (EU) BTS04

BOOTS DR. MARTENS BOOTS BTS05

BOOTS HORSE RIDING BOOTS BTS06

BOOTS JACK BOOTS BTS01

BOOTS LADIES LACE BOOTIES BLOCKHEEL BTS24

BOOTS LADIES LACE BOOTIES SUMMER BTS07

BOOTS LADIES LACE BOOTIES WINTER BTS08

BOOTS LADIES SHORT BOOTS BTS09

BOOTS LADIES SUMMER BOOTS BTS10

BOOTS LADIES WINTER BOOTS BTS11

BOOTS MENS ANKLE BOOTIES BTS12

BOOTS MILITARY BOOTS BTS13

BOOTS MOTORCYCLE BOOTS MODERN BTS14

BOOTS PACKER BOOTS BTS15

BOOTS PLATFORM LADIES BOOTS BTS25

BOOTS PUNK BOOTS BTS16

BOOTS RINGER BOOTS BTS17

BOOTS RUBBER RAINBOOTS BTS18

BOOTS SHORT COWBOY BOOTIES BTS19

BOOTS SHORT RINGERBOOTS BTS23

BOOTS SNOWBOOTS BTS20

BOOTS UGG BOOTS BTS26

BOOTS US PARACHUTE BOOTS BTS27

BOOTS WESTERN BOOTS MIXED (US) BTS21

BOOTS WORK BOOTS BTS22

SHOES 70'S MENS SHOES ROUND NOSE SHS01

SHOES 70/80'S BASKETBALL SHOES SHS02

SHOES 70/80'S SPORTSHOES SHS03

SHOES ADIDAS SLIPPERS SPR19

SHOES BIRCKENSTOCK SANDALS SHS05

SHOES BROGUES/WINGTIP MEN SHOES SHS06

SHOES BUFFALO STYLE SHOES SHS25

SHOES CANVAS SNEAKERS SHS29

SHOES CONVERSE ALL STAR SNEAKERS SHS07

SHOES CORK & WOOD PLATFORM LADIES SHOES SHS08

SHOES EU LADIES FLAT SHOES SHS10

SHOES GOLD & SILVER PUMPS SHS09

SHOES HAVAIANAS SHS28

SHOES LADIES LACE BOOTIES BLOCKHEEL BTS24

SHOES LADIES LACE BOOTIES SUMMER BTS07

SHOES LADIES LACE BOOTIES WINTER BTS08

SHOES LADIES PUMPS FINE HEEL SHS11

SHOES LADIES PUMPS THICK HEEL SHS12

SHOES LADIES SHORT BOOTS BTS09

SHOES MENS ANKLE BOOTIES BTS12

-- 12 --

Category Description Itemcode

Footwear

SHOES MENS DECKSHOES SHS13

SHOES MENS LEATHER SANDALS SHS14

SHOES MENS LOAFERS SHS15

SHOES MINNETONKA LADIES SHOES SHS16

SHOES MODERN MENS SHOES SHS17

SHOES MODERN SPORT SHOES SHS18

SHOES PALLADIUM CANVAS SNEAKERS SHS26

SHOES PLATFORM SNEAKERS SHS24

SHOES SHORT COWBOY BOOTIES BTS19

SHOES SHORT RINGERBOOTS BTS23

SHOES SLEDGE LADIES SHOES SHS19

SHOES SLINGBACK PUMPS SHS20

SHOES SOCCER SHOES SHS21

SHOES TIROL SHOES SHS22

SHOES US LADIES FLAT SHOES SHS30

SHOES VANS SHS23

SHOES WHITE ARMY SNEAKERS SHS27

-- 13 --

Category Description Itemcode

Mixes

MIXES 70'S MIX MIX01

MIXES AMSTERDAM WHITE LACE MIX DEC02

MIXES ANIMAL PRINT MIX MIX02

MIXES BRASCO TREND MIX MIX03

MIXES CHEMICAL WASH MIX MIX04

MIXES DOWN JACKETS UNI MIX MIX05

MIXES GOTHIC MIX MIX06

MIXES HEAVY LUREX MIX KSW07

MIXES HUNTING MIX MIX18

MIXES ITALIAN TREND MIX/TENDENZA MIX07

MIXES KIMONO MIX MIX20

MIXES LADIES BRANDS MIX MIX08

MIXES LEATHER HANDBAG MIX ACC14

MIXES LEATHER LADIES CLOTHING MIX LEA14

MIXES LINGERIE MIX MIX09

MIXES MENS BRAND MIX MIX10

MIXES MILITARY MIX MIX11

MIXES MODERN ADIDAS MIX MIX16

MIXES POLKA DOT MIX MIX12

MIXES PRINTED T-SHIRTS (EU) MTP08

MIXES SM MIX MIX13

MIXES STRETCH VELVET MIX MIX17

MIXES TAPESTRY MIX MIX19

MIXES TIROL MIX MIX15