Also thanks to Modern Millie's web site I found Sally Vintage, in which Sally (I guess that's her real name) goes thrifting and sells via Etsy, but also gathers old photos from her followers, goes to rock concerts, and has a nice narrative and beautiful photos along the way.
She takes us to enormous flea markets, uncovering yet another site of excess stuff that people have accumulated over the years and want to get rid of. I used to think of flea markets as fun places to go, where you would unearth the most unusual candle holder or tea cup or lampshade or or or...But now, after seeing Sally's photos of racks and racks of old clothing, they begin to look like a very low rent department store, reminding us that our excessive consumption has a history.
But then I happened upon Ronald Ingelhart's concept of "post-materialism," in which, already in the 1970s, he theorized that "Western societies [...] were undergoing transformation of individual values, switching from materialist values, emphasizing economic and physical security, to a new set of post-materialist values, which instead emphasized autonomy and self expression." (Thank you Wikipedia). I am not so sure that we have "transitioned" away from materialism to something less materialistic. However, perhaps this whole vintage/thrifting/consigning "revolution" might indeed signal a transition for SOME of us to a more autonomous, less imitative, less cookie cutter style of presenting ourselves to the world.
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