Vintage as Authentic Alternative Market to Mass-Produced First

Vintage as Authentic Alternative Market to Mass-Produced First

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Cycle Market

According to Gregson and Crewe (2003) new (or first

-cycle) and secondhand

clothing must be understood relationally rather than as separate markets. This

holds

true for vintage as a subset of secondhand. The secondhand market is social-

ly constructed as “alternative” to the first

-cycle market in a number of ways.

Secondhand is seen as removed from contemporary production (Gregson &

Crewe 2003: 5). The urban comme

rcial districts where vintage shops and antique

stores thrive are symbolically coded as alternative spaces to the mall. Vintage and

first

-cycle clothing mutually reinforce one another’s appeal. Young people create

street styles by mixing vintage and contemporary garments, with their vintage

items symbolically defining their style as unique and alternative (Woodward

2009). Reciprocally, current fashionable silhouettes that are “in” influence which

decades are also popular in vintage boutiques. The consumer l

andscape of vintage

thus depends on what is occurring in the first

-cycle clothing market. Therefore, in

order to understand the emergence of the vintage trend and its longevity, it is use-

ful to view it in relation to the consumer landscape of the first

-cyc

le clothing mar-

ket during the same time period when the vintage trend emerged. The relational

dynamic between first

-cycle and secondhand market provides a more plausible

explanation for the persistence of vintage style than economic changes during the

same

time period. For example, while the 1970s economic recession witnessed a

boom in vintage clothing’s popularity (secondhand sales typically rise in reces-

sions), vintage style also remained trendy during the economic prosperity of the

1980s and 1990s.

I con

tend that changes in the garment industry produced more homogenized,

monotonous shopping experiences, leading some American consumers to explore

alternatives that could provide more “authentic” options for dressing fashionably.

In the following section, I

explain how vintage style becomes part of authenticity

discourse because vintage clothing is perceived as distanced from mass produc-

tion, possessing qualities typically associated with handcrafted material goods and

experiences deemed “authentic.”