Clothing and Fashion in a Time of Crisis
Clothing and Fashion in a Time of Crisis

The Case of Kărdžali

Summary/Abstract: The text is based on field research conducted in the town of Kărdžali, southeast Bulgaria. The town is inhabited by a Turkish majority and a Bulgarian minority. It was chosen because of its ethnically mixed character and because of the fact that it is a typical small town without a mall. “Old” and “new” consumer practices connected with clothing are analysed. Ethnical and gender differences in clothing and fashion are presented. A new discourse related to the mass buying of second hand clothes is registered. In comparison with the 1990s, when such clothes were considered a sign of “non-normal” consumption and people wearing them were perceived as second class consumers, 20 years later wearing second hand clothes has become a norm. It is internalized and even results in a new “discourse of rehabilitation”, considering local people “extraordinary” consumers, because they decorate and re-arrange the second hand clothes. This is a reflection of the fact that living in a constant economic crisis has become a new way of life – short term strategies for coping with the crisis have become long term ones and a specific “culture of survival” has appeared.

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