The clothing trades examined in this volume covered the backs of sailors and soldiers, provided shirts for labouring men and skirts for working women, employed legions of needlewomen and supplied retailers with new consumer wares. Garments, once bought, returned again to the marketplace, circulating like currency and bolstering demand. These clothing trades were at the cusp of formal and informal markets.

The agents in these trades spanned the social spectrum, from military contractors for clothing, to female outworkers. Within the second-hand trade there were many of the same players as in the new - tailors, shopkeepers, salesmen and saleswomen, menders and makers of clothes.

Their activities were supplemented by those of petty and professional thieves, receivers, pawnbrokers and all classes of sellers and recyclers of apparel, each affected by a changing demand for new-styled 'luxuries' and necessities in apparel.