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Buying secondhand clothing is not only interesting for consumers wanting to save money but also for sustainable clothing enthusiasts. It is now among a number of consumption practices which slow down fast fashion production while saving 10 to 20 times the energy (Fletcher, 2008, p. 100). While most of the recent scholarly work focuses on secondhand consumers (Bianchi & Birtwistle, 2010; Franklin, 2011; Norum, 2015), this paper aims to examine business activities. This perspective from economic anthropology enhances understandings of secondhand clothing, as research to-date has tended to neglect the semiotic function of clothing while underlining exchanges. To gain insight into the dynamics of the sector in Germany today, two businesses from Hamburg have been ethnographically examined by the author since 2014. This study outlines their work practices and explains the development of this high-end segment of the market from the 1970s until the digital age. For businesses, the digitalization of the trade has had massive effects on their business practice because it seems to solve inherent problems connected to the selling of pre-owned clothing. I argue that the digitalization did not only promote acceptance of buying secondhand clothing in Germany but also the emergence of new businesses models.

Recalling my first experience of racism in the United States, through this autoethnographic performance text, I challenge a black-white binary and attempt to create a space in order for “yellows” to be heard since they are ignored in the binary epistemology, and, at the same time, they are always hierarchized and exploited in the racialized structure. Also, this autoethnographic project critically engages in history from a marginalized space and explores the intersection of my personal story, history, and popular discourse. Disrupting the binary epistemology from a liminal space, this autoethnographic performance project strives to cross the color line and seeks new, emancipatory possibilities.