Is the expression "rag trade" common in American English usage?

Question

I want to know if Americans use the expression "rag trade" the way the English do to describe the clothes business. I'm also interested if it is used with a derogatory connotation or not.

It seems to me that the English use it in a slightly deprecatory way but at the same time it has something of an "insider" element to it. So for example someone I met that was quite successful in the clothing industry introduced themselves saying "Oh I used to be in the rag trade"...as if it was something quite insignificant and at the same time it was obvious they were actually quite proud of their involvement in the business.

aparente001 · Answer

Apparently this is a nickname that is currently in use in the US.  I found this out by googling

rag trade New York

I found http://www.stylistico.us/location/ which states:

Not only is NYC home to some of the biggest names in the rag trade etc.

WS2 · Answer

The term rag trade began in the eighteenth century to describe the sale of rags or second-hand clothes. Its ironic sense meaning the fashion industry began in the late nineteenth. Below are the relevant dates from the OED. Note that the 1983 quotation does refer to "The Manhattan rag trade", suggesting that it has been a term used in the US - at least in New York anyway.

a. Trade in cloth rags or second-hand clothing.
  
  1745   D. Soyer & J. Lockman tr. ‘Monsieur de Blainville’ Trav. III.
  xxiv. 189   A particular Tax is laid upon the Jews at Rome... But in
  return, their Brokerage and Rag Trade is very beneficial to them.
  
  1887   Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 50 703   Resolutions in favour of
  regulating the rag trade were passed; but the usual want of practical
  information showed itself in sweeping proposals to prohibit all
  imports of rags from infected countries.
  
  1927   Bridgeport (Connecticut) Telegram 16 Sept. 4/5   There is a
  slump in the business of the European Waste Material Merchants,
  otherwise the rag trade.
  
  2005   M. Vespeth Globaloney vii. 188   It does seem that the rag
  trade offers people in third world countries a good opportunity to
  earn an income if they sell used clothes.
  
  b. colloquial (frequently ironic and humorous). The business of
  designing, making, or selling clothes, esp. women's clothing. Cf. rag
  n.2 1c.
  
  1890   A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang II. 167/2   Rag
  trade,..the tailoring business. Also the mantle-making trade.
  
  1907   Daily Chron. 31 Dec. 8/4   They do an enormous business with
  the ‘rag trade’—that is to say, the wholesale drapers, silk mercers,
  hosiers, and so on.
  
  1957   J. Coates Ship of Glass 241   I know that line. It's going to
  be fashionable... Forgive the digression but I'm in the rag trade.
  
  1983   T. Hoyle Last Gasp xvi. 207   He had the native New Yorker's
  caustically laconic wit, honed to a fine art by a lifetime spent as a
  cutter in the Manhattan rag trade.
  
  2005   T. Hall Salaam Brick Lane i. 22   The old East End rag trade
  still survived in the form of leather jacket shops and cheap clothing
  wholesalers.

Is the expression "rag trade" common in American English usage?

2 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question