Rescuing and Preserving Values in Vintage Clothing

Abstract

Where previous research into second-hand commodities has focused on

dispossession, commodity spheres, and negative contamination, we

consider the post-purchase resingularisation and rituals that consumers

undertake to preserve invested meaning. Drawing on data gathered from

phenomenological interviews with vintage clothing enthusiasts in

England and Wales we provide an account of different types of

contamination and resingularisation processes. These include new forms

of positive and negative contamination where the self becomes a potential

pollutant detracting from a good’s ability to actualise displaced meanings.