The Trail of Secondhand Clothes

By Virginia Prescott on Monday, November 10, 2008.
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The next time you drop off a load of clothes at the Goodwill or Salvation Army, think about where those old sweaters or jeans end up. According to a story in The New York Times back in 2002, about 2.6 billion pounds of clothes are donated to charities in America every year. And about 80 percent of it is shipped globally.

Filmmakers Hanna Rose Shell and Vanessa Bertozzi were inspired by that article to research the history of recycled clothing. The result is the 24-minute documentary Secondhand ("Pepe"), which connects the used clothing sold by Eastern European Jewish immigrants a century ago to those sold at Haitian markets today. Hanna Rose Shell joins us with more on the global trade in used clothes.

Watch the trailer for Secondhand ("Pepe"):


(Photo by Vanessa Bertozzi)

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