Trade and Transformations of Secondhand Clothing’...

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Your daily source of inspiration for creative reuse and mindful consumption.

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[Background on, & press coverage of, Unconsumption can be found here and here.]

Consumption is a word used to describe acts of acquisition – generally, the acquisition of things, in exchange for money.

Unconsumption is a word used to describe everything that happens after an act of acquisition.

Unconsumption is an invisible badge.

Unconsumption means the accomplishment of properly recycling your old cellphone, rather than the guilt of letting it sit in a drawer.

Unconsumption means the thrill of finding a new use for something that you were about to throw away.

Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a service like Freecycle (or Craigslist, Goodwill, or Salvation Army) to find a new home for the functioning DVD player you just replaced, rather than throwing it in the garbage.

Unconsumption means enjoying the things you own to the fullest – not just at the moment of acquisition.

Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a pair of sneakers until they are truly worn out – as opposed to the nagging feeling of defeat when they simply go out of style.

Unconsumption means feeling good about the simple act of turning off the lights when you leave the room.

Unconsumption is not about the rejection of things, or the demonization of things. It’s not a bunch of rules.

Unconsumption is an idea, a set of behaviors, a way of thinking about consumption itself from a new perspective.

Unconsumption is free.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Founder & Editor: Rob Walker, journalist, Savannah, GA

Editorial & Community Manager: Molly Block, marketing and business development geek, Houston, TX

Brian W. Jones, designer & writer, Göteborg, Sweden

Kashvi Kumar, Environmental Studies and Economics major at New York University

Deirdre Nelson, ever threading artist, Glasgow, Scotland

Shanna Trenholm, writer. catalyst. force of nature. San Diego, CA

* * *

Alumnus & Unconsumption logo creator: Clifton Burt, graphic designer, Portland, OR

Further information about Unconsumption can be found here.

11:58 am - Sun, Sep 2, 2012: 73 notes

Trade and Transformations of Secondhand Clothing’ has just been published as the 10th anniversary issue of Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture.
This edition includes papers presented at the ‘Recycling Textile Technologies’ conference held at UCL in July 2010 (see earlier postings here), and is one of the publications arising from the UCL contribution to the Waste of the World project, dealing with discarded clothing and textile waste.
Ever wondered what happens to your clothes beyond the charity bag?
Edited by anthropologists Lucy Norris and Julie Botticello, this special issue of Textile reveals the enormous scale, value and impact of the international secondhand clothes trade, a global economy that most know very little about.

More: at Material World, via Second Hand Clothing at Material World Blog « Discard Studies

Trade and Transformations of Secondhand Clothing’ has just been published as the 10th anniversary issue of Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture.

This edition includes papers presented at the ‘Recycling Textile Technologies’ conference held at UCL in July 2010 (see earlier postings here), and is one of the publications arising from the UCL contribution to the Waste of the World project, dealing with discarded clothing and textile waste.

Ever wondered what happens to your clothes beyond the charity bag?

Edited by anthropologists Lucy Norris and Julie Botticello, this special issue of Textile reveals the enormous scale, value and impact of the international secondhand clothes trade, a global economy that most know very little about.

More: at Material World, via Second Hand Clothing at Material World Blog « Discard Studies