The adventures of clothing – from second-hand clothes to recycling
History
Secondhand clothing collection and reuse has a long history. In mid and late 19th century, London, Paris and Netherlands were centers for trading of secondhand clothes and the sales were mostly to Europe or Americas. The industry has fluctuated over the 20th century with the evolving economic and political milestones. The end of World War I and II resulted in an oversupply of army clothing which was exported to Africa. Collection of second-hand clothes and small sized exports have long been present but the supply to the collectors grew the most in the 1980s for disaster relief to Africa and other regions with the increase in the humanitarian aid concept. Red Cross and other organizations donated clothes after wars or natural disasters. In the following years, the fall of the Berlin Wall and opening up of the old communist countries brought about a new wave of demand from Eastern Europe for second hand clothing. With growing globalization and less limitations on the world trade the supply and demand further increased to become a 4 billion USD industry globally.
