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Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-hand Clothes

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Following the journey of a pair of jeans Clothing Poverty takes the reader on a vivid around-the-world tour from cotton fields to retail stores. Andrew Brooks shows how new and second-hand clothes are traded across continents and traces the human and environmental impacts of production and consumption. Using research from around the globe, colourful stories and hard data demonstrate how the clothing, textile and recycling sectors have played a major part in making different regions of the world rich and poor. Clothing Poverty uncovers how fast fashion retailers and charity shops are embroiled in commodity chains which perpetuate poverty. Stitching together rich narratives from Papua New Guinean tribal people, Mozambican cotton growers, Zambian factory workers, American jeans markets, international charities, Nigerian smugglers, London’s vintage clothing scene and Vivienne Westwood’s new ethical designer lines, Brooks uncovers the many secret sides of fashion.
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... A thrift store is a retail establishment that offers a diverse selection of pre-owned items, acquired through donations from the local community, imports from economically disadvantaged nations, or surplus inventory from the fast fashion industry, often in various conditions (Brooks, 2019). Typically, products found in these local thrift shops are significantly more affordable than their original retail prices, and occasionally, branded items can be purchased for a fraction of their actual cost (Brooks, 2019). ...
... A thrift store is a retail establishment that offers a diverse selection of pre-owned items, acquired through donations from the local community, imports from economically disadvantaged nations, or surplus inventory from the fast fashion industry, often in various conditions (Brooks, 2019). Typically, products found in these local thrift shops are significantly more affordable than their original retail prices, and occasionally, branded items can be purchased for a fraction of their actual cost (Brooks, 2019). Buying second-hand clothing that is still in usable condition not only reduces landfill waste but also imparts the value of clothing as something passed down through generations (McDonald, 2017). ...
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In the Islamic faith, there is an emphasis on the importance of avoiding wastefulness. According to Salau (2020), Muslims are encouraged to be mindful of their consumption and use resources responsibly, discouraging excessive wastefulness known as "israf." The act of recycling and repurposing materials is seen as positive and aligns with this principle. In Malaysia, there is a growing issue of textile waste. According to (Khalid, 2021) Approximately 195,300 tons of fabric waste are discarded in the country, accounting for 6.3% of the total 3.1 million tons of solid waste that ends up in landfills. The abundance of clothing in thrift stores is a consequence of the fast fashion industry's rapid production, resulting in lower quality and cheaper prices. To address this problem, a research innovation has identified discarded winter knitwear as a viable material and developed a successful process to convert it into reusable material. This innovation aims to create new products from transformed knitwear, thereby helping consumers reduce textile waste in landfills by providing them with reusable recycled material.
... Within this context, African countries are today the major importers of SHC (see Figure 1), receiving the lowest grade of sorted clothing along with Asian countries. It is estimated that the SHC global wholesale trade amounts to between 2 and 4 million metric tonnes per year with a value between $1.5 billion and $3.4 billion (Brooks, 2015). Because of the complexity and secrecy of the international geographies of the SHC trade, inequalities and imbalances between GN and GS continue, maintaining a relationship of colonial dependence among countries. ...
... However, an excess of 70% of donated clothes that cannot be sold on the local SH markets are sold to for-profit recyclers/collectors who sort and prepare the clothes for export to the GS (Amanor, 2018;Hawley, 2006). Sorted clothes are graded according to their destination to different locations including Poland, Africa, India, and parts of the Middle East (Brooks, 2015;Comtrade, 2016;Norris, 2012). This system of excess questions the value of clothes in the GN. ...
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African countries are today the major importers of the lowest grade of second‐hand clothing (SHC). With the opening of global markets and the intense circulation of fast fashion in the Global North from the 1990s, the trade of SHC has exploded in the twenty‐first century. The fast fashion business model, which fuels the SHC trade, has led to reduced quality of clothes, limited clothing lifetime, and accelerated discard of clothing, which end up as donations or become waste. The complexity of the international geographies of the SHC trade creates opacity and secrecy, maintaining inequalities and imbalances between Global North (GN) and South (GS), which continue a relationship of colonial dependence. This paper presents a critical look at SHC exchange in Kantamanto, the biggest SHC market in West Africa, situated within the central business district of Accra, Ghana. The paper scrutinizes the export of unwanted donated clothing, popularly known as “Obroni w'awu” (white man is dead), to Kantamanto. We use direct observation along with an interpretive research design through the analysis of photos taken from Kantamanto, and scholarly and gray literature. The paper documents local practices of reuse, exposing a duality: on the one hand, clothing's symbolic value that is lost in the GN is reconstituted in the GS through exchange and labor‐creating local economies. On the other, the global trade of SHC has become synonymous with dumping, continuing a colonialist relationship between the GN and GS whereby the GN exports unwanted clothing to predominantly African countries’ landfills.
... The thriving development of the SHC resulted in the majority of the population in East Africa changing their taste for clothing and sourcing their clothing needs from the informal SHC sector. 45 Such a transition in taste links SHC and local textile production in Africa. However, linking the rise of SHC to the decline of local textile industries in Africa faces diverse views in the literature. ...
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A rapid change in fast fashion has significantly accelerated the expansion of the volume of discarded clothing across the globe. Africa is the world’s largest destination for second-hand clothes (SHC, sometimes known as ‘Mitumba’). However, fewer studies have been conducted on Africa’s SHC, making it challenging to evaluate the impact of the market and its value chain. This study examines the economic contribution and assessment of the SHC value chain and the resulting environmental challenges, identifies the trends of scholarly discourse on the topic in Africa, examines their methodologies and develops future research opportunities. The study shows that the SHC trade is an essential supply chain connecting developed and developing countries and a valuable clothing consumption alternative for people experiencing economic decline, poverty and low purchasing power. SHC is crucial in delivering fashion products to customers in underdeveloped African countries. It also creates job opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people in the trade, distribution, repairs, laundry services and upcycling. Results further show that Africans are being enriched with new skills and knowledge of the SHC trade, which is expected to help grow and promote small- to medium-sized enterprises. However, poorly made Mitumba become unmarketable, creating environmental challenges in cities across the continent. The study found fewer empirical studies, due largely to limited data on Africa’s SHC trade. This calls for more empirical studies to scale the SHC trade in the region, expand the boundaries of entrepreneurial opportunities for Africa to interact with the global market, and alleviate the widespread problem of extreme poverty while also addressing the environmental challenges posed by SHC.
... The thriving development of the SHC resulted in the majority of the population in East Africa changing their taste for clothing and sourcing their clothing needs from the informal SHC sector. 45 Such a transition in taste links SHC and local textile production in Africa. However, linking the rise of SHC to the decline of local textile industries in Africa faces diverse views in the literature. ...
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Purpose – Studies on textile upcycling in Africa are rare, particularly in Liberia, where extensive upcycling designs are appreciated throughout the country. This study aims to contribute to the upcycling literature from the perspective of Liberia’s fashion upcyclers by assessing their coping strategies and understanding the challenges confronting fashion upcycling in Monrovia’s four largest markets. Design/methodology/approach – A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process and data envelopment analysis (DEA) models were used to assess labor input, delivery and flexibility, technological and innovation capability, financial capability, pricing of finished products, customer service and quality outputs of upcycled fashions. The fuzzy inference system model assessed upcyclers’ loaning eligibility. Findings – The results highlight that Liberia’s fashion upcycling is expanding with varying innovative designs. The quality of upcycled fashions was deemed most important in the proposed AHP model. However, many upcycling businesses lack sufficient capital to make long-term investments. With the necessary investment, the innovation of these upcyclers could be a new line of fashion brands with great potential. In addition, using a fair judgment in assessing the little loaning funds available is paramount to enhancing their growth. Research limitations/implications – Only 34 decision-making units were assessed. Future research could expand this scope using other models with more practical loaning strategies. Originality/value – This study presents a wealth of managerial and policy implications. The proposed hybrid model is adequate for developing managerial decisions for fashion upcyclers. The proposed framework can manage ambiguity, inaccuracy and the complexity of making decisions based on numerous criteria, making it applicable in unearthing robust strategies for enhancing the fashion upcycling sectors and other industries in developing countries. In addition, the proposed fuzzy Mamdani system could also be extended to other sectors, such as agriculture, for a more transparent allocation of resources.
... In their assembly from component materials to plastic objects, polyester clothes generate various ethical and moral complexities that require careful interpretation within the parameters of environmental and social justice (Castree 2004). What transpires across the production and consumption of polyester clothes is not only messy and complex but also opaque (Brooks 2015). It is challenging to trace the interrelationships among the polyester clothes consumed and the various environmental, social, and economic impacts of the unfurling plasticity (Cook 2004). 1 What further complicates the problem of polyester are questions of lifestyle and comfort provided by clothing (Stanes 2018). ...
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... For some time, the African continent has served as the final destination for an estimated 70% of clothing donated globally with East Africa alone importing over $150 million worth of used apparel, predominantly from the US, and Europe (Banik, 2020). Yet, as pointed out by Brooks (2019), when the affluent donate their unwanted apparel to charities, assuming it will be reused, the journey does not end there and the story remains half told. In a recent documentary, Besser (2021) reports on the tragic consequences surrounding textile waste in Ghana, highlighting the fact that the country has a population of 30 million, with 15 million donated garments from the United States, Europe and Australia reaching its shores every week, thus resulting in mountains of unusable, lower-quality textile waste ending up in landfills. ...
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Globally, textile waste is cause for much concern with attention devoted toward waste reduction strategies throughout the value chain, but also more specifically at the end-of-life, when consumers are urged to donate, recycle or resell unwanted apparel. Studies in developed countries have provided much insight surrounding consumers’ apparel disposal, but the topic remains understudied in emerging economies. Using a combination of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Norm Activation Theory (NAT), this study explores female consumers’ motivation and intention to sustainably dispose of post-consumer textile waste in the South African emerging market context. Adopting a non-probable purposive sampling procedure, 315 females between 18 and 65 years were recruited, as they often fulfill decisive roles in the disposal of unwanted apparel. Scale items derived from prior research were adapted and included in a structured, self-administered web-based questionnaire to collect data. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed eight factors, namely awareness of environmental consequences, social norms, personal norms, perceived behavioral control, attitudes as well as their intent to donate, resell and reuse/ recycle apparel. Focusing on donation as respondents’ preferred method of disposal, a structural equation model was devised that reveals the underlying motivational factors that contribute to their willingness to donate. The findings offer a meaningful contribution toward current debates surrounding the utility of TPB and NAT to predict intent. The study also delivers a much-needed African perspective on the underpinnings of consumers’ apparel donation, which may serve as a basis for waste reduction strategies and direct future investigation.
... 8 "While the second-hand clothing trade provides employment for some, for example, those engaged in the informal street business, it also undermines the local textile industry in many countries." (Brooks 2019 For the Instituto Boliviano de Comercio Exterior (IBCE, Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade), the impact of this activity directly influences artisans and micro small and medium-sized national textile production companies, harming their development, they are considered unfair competition as they belong to the informal sector and market goods from smuggling (IBCE, 2015). 9 9 ...
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Fashion has been an important part of human cultures since the dawn of civilization. It covers a wide range of practices related to clothing, style, personal ornaments to domains like furniture, interior design, and food preferences. Therefore, it is deeply influenced by cultural, social, economic, and political factors. Fashion is a powerful tool for representing identity, especially in cultures impacted by colonialism and imperialism. It is through fashion choices that individuals express their cultural identity, challenge norms imposed by others, and resist the erasure of their heritage. It becomes a tool for empowerment and self-representation, allowing marginal communities to reclaim agency over their own narratives. While colonialism may have ended, the legacy of colonialism has left lasting impacts on economies, social structures, and cultural perceptions. The Western nations continue actively participating in imperial activities to protect their wealth and power by exploiting other countries economically. The internalisation of colonial set of values has also influenced the perception of fashion among the people from once colonised countries whose cultural values are deemed as being uncivilized as “superior”, “civilized” and “rational” coloniser’s western fashion trends permeate the local market. Fashion is used as a means of signifying power, class, and status with European modes of dress being seen as a symbol of sophistication and modernity. Drawing upon the broader theorerical framework of postcolonialism, this paper critically analyses V.S. Naipaul’s seminal work A Bend in the River to demonstrate how fashion choices creates identities to continue colonial legacies.
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Clothes, especially of high symbolic and/or material value, were always treasured and passed on to other users as gifts, heirlooms and legacies or given to charity, usually through religious institutions. Although secondhand clothing has a long history, it grew in volume and visibility with industrial revolution and the establishment of the consumer society, the driving force of capitalism. Desire to accumulate the new was always accompanied with the need to dispose of the old. Partly still maintaining charitable character, the global used-clothing exchange, starting with the 19th century rag trade international networks, has grown into a multi-billion- dollar commerce between the global North and the global South. While used clothes are still considered by some as trash, they can be a blessing to the world of the poor, a powerful (counter)-cultural declaration to some groups (e.g., hippies, grunge), or, if marketed as vintage, a deliberate fashion statement. Whatever the case, they present a “hot” controversial topic. Nowadays, the way secondhand is viewed and used around the world, proves again that globalization is a creative process producing always new forms of hybridization. This paper presents a short history and diverse views of the phenomenon. The research was based on multi- sited participant observation and interviews over an extended period of time.
Chapter
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On any given day nearly half the world’s population is wearing blue jeans. This is entirely extraordinary. Yet there has never been a serious attempt to understand the causes, nature and consequences of denim as “the” global garment of our world. This book takes up that challenge with gusto. It gives clear, if surprising, explanations for why this is the case; challenging the accepted history of jeans and showing why the reasons cannot be commercial. While discussing the consequences of denim at the global level, the book consists of some exemplary studies by anthropologists of what blue jeans mean in a variety of local situations. These range from the discussion of hip-hop jeans in Germany, denim and sex in Milan through to the connection between denim and recycling in the US. But through all these intensively researched ethnographies of local denim we build our understanding of the most curious of all features of blue jeans – the rise of global denim.
Chapter
Recent interest in ‘vintage’ and second hand clothes by both fashion consumers and designers is only the latest manifestation of a long and complex cultural history of wearing and trading second hand clothes. With its origins in necessity, the passing of clothes between social and economic groups is now a global business, but with roots that are centuries old. To move from one social and cultural situation to another used clothes must be 'transformed' to become of potential value to a new social group. How, when and why this has happened is the subject of this book. Old Clothes, New Looks presents a three-part focus on the history, the trading culture, and the contemporary refashioning of second hand clothing. Historical perspectives include studies located in Renaissance Florence, early industrial England, colonial Australia, and mid twentieth-century Ireland. The global nature of the second hand trade in clothing is presented through original research from Zambia, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan. The reuse of garments as contemporary fashion statements is explored through studies that include neo-mod retro-sixties subculture in Germany, the impact of 'vintage' in the USA on consumers and designers, as well as consideration of its sartorial and cultural challenges, encapsulated by the work of designer XULY.Bet. This groundbreaking book will be essential reading for all those interested in fashion and dress, material culture, consumption and anthropology, as well as to dealers, collectors and wearers of second hand clothes.
Chapter
Recent interest in ‘vintage’ and second hand clothes by both fashion consumers and designers is only the latest manifestation of a long and complex cultural history of wearing and trading second hand clothes. With its origins in necessity, the passing of clothes between social and economic groups is now a global business, but with roots that are centuries old. To move from one social and cultural situation to another used clothes must be 'transformed' to become of potential value to a new social group. How, when and why this has happened is the subject of this book. Old Clothes, New Looks presents a three-part focus on the history, the trading culture, and the contemporary refashioning of second hand clothing. Historical perspectives include studies located in Renaissance Florence, early industrial England, colonial Australia, and mid twentieth-century Ireland. The global nature of the second hand trade in clothing is presented through original research from Zambia, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan. The reuse of garments as contemporary fashion statements is explored through studies that include neo-mod retro-sixties subculture in Germany, the impact of 'vintage' in the USA on consumers and designers, as well as consideration of its sartorial and cultural challenges, encapsulated by the work of designer XULY.Bet. This groundbreaking book will be essential reading for all those interested in fashion and dress, material culture, consumption and anthropology, as well as to dealers, collectors and wearers of second hand clothes.
Chapter
Recent interest in ‘vintage’ and second hand clothes by both fashion consumers and designers is only the latest manifestation of a long and complex cultural history of wearing and trading second hand clothes. With its origins in necessity, the passing of clothes between social and economic groups is now a global business, but with roots that are centuries old. To move from one social and cultural situation to another used clothes must be 'transformed' to become of potential value to a new social group. How, when and why this has happened is the subject of this book. Old Clothes, New Looks presents a three-part focus on the history, the trading culture, and the contemporary refashioning of second hand clothing. Historical perspectives include studies located in Renaissance Florence, early industrial England, colonial Australia, and mid twentieth-century Ireland. The global nature of the second hand trade in clothing is presented through original research from Zambia, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan. The reuse of garments as contemporary fashion statements is explored through studies that include neo-mod retro-sixties subculture in Germany, the impact of 'vintage' in the USA on consumers and designers, as well as consideration of its sartorial and cultural challenges, encapsulated by the work of designer XULY.Bet. This groundbreaking book will be essential reading for all those interested in fashion and dress, material culture, consumption and anthropology, as well as to dealers, collectors and wearers of second hand clothes.
Chapter
Recent interest in ‘vintage’ and second hand clothes by both fashion consumers and designers is only the latest manifestation of a long and complex cultural history of wearing and trading second hand clothes. With its origins in necessity, the passing of clothes between social and economic groups is now a global business, but with roots that are centuries old. To move from one social and cultural situation to another used clothes must be 'transformed' to become of potential value to a new social group. How, when and why this has happened is the subject of this book. Old Clothes, New Looks presents a three-part focus on the history, the trading culture, and the contemporary refashioning of second hand clothing. Historical perspectives include studies located in Renaissance Florence, early industrial England, colonial Australia, and mid twentieth-century Ireland. The global nature of the second hand trade in clothing is presented through original research from Zambia, India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan. The reuse of garments as contemporary fashion statements is explored through studies that include neo-mod retro-sixties subculture in Germany, the impact of 'vintage' in the USA on consumers and designers, as well as consideration of its sartorial and cultural challenges, encapsulated by the work of designer XULY.Bet. This groundbreaking book will be essential reading for all those interested in fashion and dress, material culture, consumption and anthropology, as well as to dealers, collectors and wearers of second hand clothes.