LEISURE STUDIES IN A GLOBAL Modern ERA Vintage Homes & Leisure Lives Ghosts & Glamour SAMANTHA HOLLAND Leisure Studies in a Global Era Series Editors Karl Spracklen Leeds Beckett University Leeds, United Kingdom Karen Fox University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada In this book series, we defend leisure as a meaningful, theoretical, fram- ing concept; and critical studies of leisure as a worthwhile intellectual and pedagogical activity. This is what makes this book series distinctive: we want to enhance the discipline of leisure studies and open it up to a richer range of ideas; and, conversely, we want sociology, cultural geographies and other social sciences and humanities to open up to engaging with critical and rigorous arguments from leisure studies. Getting beyond con- cerns about the grand project of leisure, we will use the series to demon- strate that leisure theory is central to understanding wider debates about identity, postmodernity and globalisation in contemporary societies across the world. The series combines the search for local, qualitatively rich accounts of everyday leisure with the international reach of debates in politics, leisure and social and cultural theory. In doing this, we will show that critical studies of leisure can and should continue to play a central role in understanding society. The scope will be global, striving to be truly international and truly diverse in the range of authors and topics. Editorial Board: John Connell, Professor of Geography, University of Sydney, USA; Yoshitaka Mori, Associate Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan; Smitha Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professor, Wellesley College, USA; Diane M. Samdahl, Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Georgia, USA; Chiung-Tzu Lucetta Tsai, Associate Professor, National Taipei University, Taiwan; Walter van Beek, Professor of Anthropology and Religion, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Sharon D. Welch, Professor of Religion and Society, Meadville Theological School, Chicago, USA; Leslie Witz, Professor of History, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/series/14823 Samantha Holland Modern Vintage Homes & Leisure Lives Ghosts & Glamour Samantha Holland Leeds Beckett University Leeds, United Kingdom Leisure Studies in a Global Era ISBN 978-1-137-57617-0 ISBN 978-1-137-57618-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57618-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953561 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans- mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987 Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom In memory of my grandmother Marion Holland née Clayton 1916–1998 Acknowledgements Many thanks to the 20 participants of this study who gave up their time and kindly allowed me a glimpse into their homes (and their cupboards and wardrobes!). Thank you to the participants who gave me permission to use their photographs. Thank you to the people who kindly filled in the online questionnaire; many put a lot of time and thought into it and I appreciate it. I plan for it to form the basis of further work. Thank you to: the owners of the vintage shop in which I collected observations and data. They were very welcoming and helpful at all times; the administrator/owner of ‘Coco Vintage’, the online vintage selling group, for allowing me to post asking for respondents and participants— and for our chats ‘behind the scenes’; Vintage Life magazine for printing my letter; Sharla Plant and Jack Redden at Palgrave Macmillan; and Leeds Beckett University who funded the data collection. Thanks also to my kind and eagle-eyed friend Sarah Kelsey and my equally kind and eagle-eyed husband Sam Hinchliffe, for proofreading and commenting on the chapters. (Of course all errors are my own.) vii viii Acknowledgements Thank you to Cathy Killick, Wendy Robinson, Jo Reynolds, Evie Southgate, Leanne Norman, Liz Powner, and Vicki Robinson who all found themselves in the middle of conversations about second-hand clothes or about writers’ block. (This won’t change!) Thanks to my mother Josephine Hammond, my uncle Harbie Holland, and my stepmother Mary Callaghan who all sent me cuttings about vintage ‘goings-on’. At this point I’d also like to thank my mum for always being preter- naturally calm about whatever weird vintage get-up I was wearing. Contents 1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday 1 What Is Vintage? 4 The Study 11 Book Outline 12 References 13 2 S tudying Vintage (Or, What I Did) 17 Interviews and Ethnography 19 The Participants 22 Field Diary 26 Online Data Collection 31 Auto-ethnography 32 References 39 3 ‘With Sentiment Still Attached’: An Overview of Vintage 41 The Questionnaire 42 Beginnings and Inspiration 45 Definitions 49 ‘The Story’ 50 Custodianship 53 Day to Day 58 ix x Contents Final Thoughts 62 References 63 4 ‘A Form of Time Travel’: Everyday Vintage 65 At Home with It All 70 Vignette: The Period Kitchen 82 References 90 5 ‘ Search for Hours in a Dark Room’: Finding Vintage 93 Routines and Practices 100 Selling ‘Vintage’ 105 Observations in a Vintage Shop 109 References 117 6 E xpertise, Knowledge, and Inherited Memories 121 Imagined Memories 123 The Freelance Expert 125 Preserving the Past for the Future 131 Collections 135 Order and Disorder 143 Vignette: Elizabeth and Richard’s Vintage Christmas 145 References 150 7 D ressing Up and ‘Wardrobe Moments’ 153 Looking Back: Gendered Bodies 155 Second-Hand Hauntings 159 ‘Wardrobe Moments’ 165 Vignette: Liza’s Wardrobe 172 References 176 8 ‘ Sensual and Imaginative’: Glamour and the Vintage Body 179 The Favourite Decades 181 Vignette: Hedy’s Hats 192 Fur 194