Emily
Spivack, who runs the Smithsonian blog Threaded, browses eBay for
vintage clothing. She found herself especially drawn to clothing items
that had stories behind them. Intrigued, she began buying those items
with the best stories. It became a hobby.
“I was
intrigued by the idea that this marketplace—which was supposed to serve
one function, to be transactional—could also have a storytelling
emphasis,” Spivack explains. “Interestingly, the time I spent on eBay
became much more about looking for stories than things that I actually
wanted to purchase.”
Of course, those stories feed right into her blog about
historical clothing. Now, Spivak has an exhibition of some of those
clothing items (and their stories) called “Sentimental Value” at the
Philadelphia Art Alliance.
Spivack’s favorite stories
typically blur the line between historical, personal, and hearsay, like
the description of the green silk gown belonging to a seller’s aunt in
the 1920s. “Supposedly, her aunt wore the dress to a club one evening,”
says Spivack. “She was a blonde, and moved fast, and her boyfriend was
involved in the mob. And when they went out that night, someone next to
her was shot and killed, and blood splattered on her dress. So they were
selling this dress with blood splattered on it. I bid on it, and it’s
in the show. To me, that story is absolutely incredible.”
Read about how the clothing items of eBay reached out and grabbed the historian at
Collectors Weekly.
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