Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
This work examines a trade that covered the backs of sailors and soldiers, that shirted labouring men and skirted working women, that employed legions of needlewomen and supplied retailers with new consumer wares. Garments, once bought, returned again to the marketplace, circulating like a currency and bolstering demand. The agents in this trade included military contractors for clothing, female outworkers and dealers in used clothes. Each was affected by a changing demand for new-styled 'luxuries' and necessities in apparel.
Synopsis
This work examines a trade that covered the backs of sailors and soldiers, that shirted labouring men and skirted working women, that employed legions of needlewomen and supplied retailers with new consumer wares. Garments, once bought, returned again to the marketplace, circulating like a currency and bolstering demand. The agents in this trade included military contractors for clothing, female outworkers and dealers in used clothes. Each was affected by a changing demand for new-styled 'luxuries' and necessities in apparel.
Booknews
Looks at the whole circulation of garments, including the original sale, resale, mending and altering, and theft, and how it all served both the desire for the latest fashions and the need for protection of the body. The topics include contracted clothing, ready-made apparel, guilds, women outworkers, Jews in the trade, women's work and the second-hand clothing trade, stripping strangers and rifling rooms, looting shops, and popular consumerism. Includes several black-and-white reproductions of period illustrations. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.