Ms Margot Louise Riley
Margot is a curatorial and research consultant working in Sydney, NSW. She is a cultural historian with special interest in textiles and dress. Her professional experience includes curatorial positions with the Powerhouse Museum and the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. From 1992-1994 she completed the Masters in Museum Studies Program at the Fashion Institute of Technology and since her return to Australia has been employed as a picture researcher with the State Library of New South Wales. She undertakes research and writing projects on request whilst pursuing her own long term interest in secondhand dressing.
Cast offs: Aspects of Second-hand Clothing Use in Australia from 1788 - 2002
This paper presents material evidence of the use and trade in second-hand clothing in Australia since 1788. By documenting this history we begin to see points of merger and divergence between Australian cultural practice and that of other western countries. White settlement of Australia coincided with the rise of the ready-to-wear industry but the irregularity of supply and lack of a local manufacturing base encouraged the continuation of European second-hand trading practices. This is manifested in contemporary portraiture depicting local aborigines dressed in the cast-offs of their invaders. Such evidence of the sartorial style of the dispossessed is a rare survival. As the colony found its feet, the combination of cheap imported ready to wear clothes and high wages/ low cost of living eliminated the second-hand trade for all but the poorest classes. Whilst charitable agencies were relied upon to clothe a faceless urban poor, pawnbrokers and market stalls selling second-hand goods filled the gap for those living outside the sphere of the department store. The ragged 'swagman' became a popular and picturesque subject matter for antipodean artists. Born out of necessity during WW2 clothing rationing, the 'Opportunity' shop has proliferated in the late 20th century recession years. Since the 1970's, at the other end of the marketplace and in tandem with the resurgence of second-hand and recycled clothing stores, a local 'vintage'/ 'antique' clothing trade has emerged. The early 21st Century has also seen the rise of Australian 'recycle/ reuse' couture practitioners.
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