Abstract
Norris investigates the politics of commodifying clothing in India, tracing the largely hidden trade of recycling, transforming and reselling surplus garments. Through an in-depth ethnographic analysis conducted in New Delhi, the recycling trade provides a beautifully crafted empirical basis, upon which she builds an engaging, accessible discussion of the interplay between traditional value systems and global market structures.
The book begins with a clear contextualisation of the clothing recycling market within the area of neoliberal reforms. These have opened Delhi’s local markets to the global trade, encouraging the accumulation of surplus garments and the increase of inter-caste barter. Having set this historical cadre, which places this work firmly in the anthropology of globalisation, Norris continues with a textured exploration of the different value systems and power relations that characterise the numerous stages of this trade. First, by drawing on the in-depth life stories of middle-class individuals from a variety of different caste and religions backgrounds, she reveals the potential of garments to reflect personal narratives by giving the reader many illustrative examples. Thus, a woman whose family did not approve her marriage might lack an important core of her wardrobe (p. 66), or the change of a new life cycle, such as marriage, motherhood to matriarchy might be accompanied by a different set of wardrobe (p. 72). Similarly, gifts of clothes can determine the boundary between family and friendship, becoming a marker of social intimacy or a tool to signify distance (pp. 117–8).
Having highlighted the symbolic value of garments in Chapter 3, Norris shows how this symbolism is refracted in the recycling practices through which clothes are discarded. Far from regarding unwanted garments as mere waste, the care her informants attributed to the disposal of their possessions indicates that they continue to be seen as repositories of social relations even after being discarded. Middle-class informants explained how only certain clothing could be given to a maid, for example, commensurate with her status that did not risk altering existing class hierarchies (p. 109). Similarly, precious saris are more likely to be burnt in order to extract valuable metals for new use (p. 121), while ensuring that their symbolic value is confined to their first owners. Other items are deliberately given to collectors, or bartered for kitchen utensils in the market in a way that, Norris argues, for some middle-class Indians neutralises their first social value and allows them to enter a new value regime (p. 139).
The argument acquires a very interesting angle in Chapter 6, which shows how despite the donors’ particularities about how they end, elongate or neutralise the life of their unwanted garments, within the complex stages of assessment, transformation and recommodification that follow, the recycled garments enter an entirely distinct life cycle, characterised in turn by a number of different value systems. This opens up a world to the reader which is normally hidden, not only to travellers to Delhi but also, as Norris argues, to those middle-class individuals who initially got rid of the garments (p. 115). She highlights that they have often very different perceptions about what happens with their garments after they traded them. The markets around Delhi are part of a web with key national and transnational nodes. The city’s Waghri community, a community originally from Gujarat involved in the barter of clothes, is highly connected to other traders in north and west India (p. 151). Entire communities specialised in different skill sets, such as sewing, embroidery, quilting or cleaning, are involved in the process of turning surplus value into new value. Most interestingly, the connections generated around the recycling trade reach far into the transnational space. The increase in Western tourists during the 1960s, Norris explains, subsequently created a market demanding ethical clothing with oriental motifs in India and later also in the West (p. 165). This reversed orientalism, fuelled by a demand for a particular type of ethnic aesthetic, but also for cheap garments, relies heavily on recycled clothing. Old saris, once donated to a collector or bartered in the Delhi market, are transformed and resold in Western markets. If not explicitly branded as vintage, they are skilfully transformed into pillow cases, bedspreads or rags that hide their former origins. For example, the London-based shop Tommy Frog has been selling fashion items created from second-hand Indian saris since 1998 (p. 165).
Overall, this book is a fascinating inquiry into the transformation of value, which occurs when local ideas of propriety, themselves divided across class and caste lines, meet the global logic of trade. Norris challenges the myth that surplus is the privilege of the West, by revealing Delhi’s distinct approaches to waste. Examining the deeper value systems characterising each stage of the trade, the book is most successful in providing a refreshingly different approach towards surplus, which highlights that waste is not the end of a commodity, but can also be the essence of something new. It also dispels the illusion that second-hand clothing is unidirectionally flowing towards developing countries. Throughout the book, the writing remains clear and accessible, full of textured descriptions which seem to recreate the streets of Delhi. It is sure to inform specialists in the anthropology of consumption and globalisation, but remains accessible to all readers interested in a profound understanding of the recycled clothing trade in India.