Karen Tranberg Hansen

This paper is based on research into secondhand clothing undertaken during the 1990s. It also contains observations from research in progress that the author has conducted in Zambia since 2001 on youth and urban social reproduction. The widespread use all over the world today of Western-inspired dress does not produce «sameness», even though we all wear many of the same things, for example, jeans and sneakers, shirts and dresses, and suits and ties. Cities like Lusaka are the prime stages for globalization’s translation into local understandings and experiences. Monitoring the way they dress in public, clothing conscious Zambians pay considerable attention to the possibilities of their garments when dressing in world/global styles, seeking to anticipate their desired effects. In this affecting experience of dress, the distinction between used clothing and fashion becomes irrelevant as does the problematic differentiation between Western and non-Western dress styles. In spite of the aggressive forces that structure the global circuit of garment production and along with it, the international secondhand clothing trade, there does exist spaces within which locally authored dress distinctions may take over.