Elizabeth L. Cline

So a couple years ago, I got anxious about child labor making clothes. I guess, at the end of the day, I'm a hippy at heart and I absorbed a lot of sweatshop rhetoric as a child. At the end of 2013, I made a New Year's resolution that I wasn't going to buy anything, unless it was made in a country with strong labor laws, or out of recycled materials, or in some other way good for something. It was a surprisingly difficult year, especially for socks and underwear. But after 2014 ended, I kept it up for clothes, at least. And, as billed by Elizabeth Cline, buying high-end brands (mostly used) and avoiding fast fashion has resulted in clothes I like more, and keep longer.

Given that I was pretty much already there, I found Overdressed a pretty shallow read. It read fast, and at times seemed more interested in the cost of cheap fashion to a fashionista, rather than more generally. Nonetheless, it provided a context for how the clothing market got to where it was.… (más)

Inspired by this book, I took a trip to the thrift store today for the first time in several years, and it seems that fast fashion has gotten an even stronger hold than it had in 2017. I could hardly find anything 100% cotton, let alone the silk and wool treasures I used to find. *Sigh* This is a decent book but not really anything I didn't already know. And the narration of the audiobook isn't great (narrator kept mispronouncing words, like saying "blots" for "bolts," and "tawny" for "tony"), but it gets the job done.… (más)

Right now I'm wearing a pair of $150 shoes that were made in America (which I happen to buy because I have hard to fit feet). In 2013 America, I am the exception. 20 or more years ago, however, I wouldn't have been, as Elizabeth Cline shows. In inflation adjusted money, the price of clothes has dropped dramatically and our expectations for clothing have changed alongside. We now buy cheaper clothes in larger quantities.

The drop in price and the rise of fast fashion has come at a cost, however. We have come to expect clothes that are cheap in quality as well as in price. They are made under time pressure in foreign factories with poorly paid workers, from cheaper fabrics, in quickly run off collections ripped off from other manufacturers. The mid-market fashions many of us grew up in are now hard to find or completely nonexistent: the lines that purport to be mid-market are now made cheaply as well. At the high end, while some pieces reflect a genuine increase in labor, materials, and design, others retail for far greater markups as a demonstration of affluence and the importance of labels.

Cline does a nice job of demonstrating the costs--both in clothes and to the workers who make them--of our modern attitude to fashion. She is short on suggestions, however, aside from promotion of ethical fashion initiatives. The book is predominantly focused on standard sized women's wear. As with fashion in general, plus (where we pay 3x or more the price for equally poorly made clothing--no Zara for us) is ignored. A few mentions are made of suits, but men and children get short shrift; the examples are continually of dresses, skirts, and blouses.

As always with discussion of ethical fashion, I left with a small amount of personal frustration, but the issues addressed are relevant for all.… (más)