Dana Thomas (1) (1964–)

The first third of this book is a really searing description of how the clothing industry works and how deeply disfunctional it is, profoundly abusive to millions of (mostly) women making our clothes and wildly wasteful and damaging to our planet. The second two thirds describes all sorts of people who are striving to build alternative businesses and models that do this better. Scary and then inspiring. Recommended.

The more I read of this book, the more I liked it. Dana Thomas starts out slow, outlining the problem: cheap clothing, offshoring and inhumane working conditions, waste of resources, disposal problems, overbuying of unsatisfactory items... there's lots of problem to go round, but most people who would pick up the book are probably well aware. Nonetheless, it's not bad to set the stage. Then Thomas drills deeper and we get specifics. Cotton growing is water intensive and dyeing is worse, but show more what about coloured cotton that is naturally drought resistant? Factory-ripped and pre-faded jeans are stupid, anyone who wore denim in the 70s has a strong sense of proper do-it-yourself jean conditioning, but Dana went to factories and saw the unbelievably toxic working conditions imposed on people who "age" jeans for the fashion market. The amount of travel and on-site research in this book is staggering. And there's historical research too. The history of Levi's is fascinating.

Many solutions to the problem of fast fashion are springing up. Many are not unexpected. Natural cotton, natural dyes. Better quality clothing that you buy once, wash less often and less drastically and keep for years. Some are a bit more of a surprise, such as rental of designer clothing. (I was all for that one until the solution to lingering smells from the previous wearer turned out to be spraying a fresh floral fragrance; 99 chances out of 100 that I'd be unable to enjoy my weekend in that fabulous gown because I'd be in the ER on an IV for a debilitating, nauseated, migraine. But as another reviewer pointed out, as a plus size woman I couldn't fit into those designer fashions in the first place.) Some are still highly impractical, such as 3-D printing: the author is being tactful and you have to read between the lines, but it seems like the best it can do is something resembling fine chain mail, or of course plate armour. There are also solutions to overproduction, such as making clothing to order -- sort of like print-on-demand books -- and selling it online or as a boutique experience (everything in the store is for sale, appreciate it in person with gracious attendants to serve you, make your choice and we'll deliver it to your home). I'm sure that is just as expensive as it sounds. But (not mentioned in this book) Melanzana in Colorado is making it work at a price point that accommodates normal people and in addition manufactures all clothing 100% on-site. Their website assures prospective customers that the booking system is not broken, it's just that they're now booking appointments 9 months ahead!

The best solutions may be in the section discussing "on-shoring" where entrepreneurs are bringing clothing production back to the communities that once lived on it. Technological innovations can help do the mass-production part of clothing by robot (tended by highly skilled workers) and highly trained garment workers, some of whom still haven't left town after the brutal mass layoffs, can return to their sewing machines and add value by their skills. Fabric-producing mills, too, can come back to life.

Fashionopolis is a book full of possibilities and hope. show less

When I picked [b:Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|43671670|Fashionopolis The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|Dana Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554846636l/43671670._SY75_.jpg|67945585] off the library shelf, I was expecting it to be very depressing due to prior awareness that the fashion industry’s business model has an appalling social and environmental impact. In fact, I found it more show more optimistic and encouraging than anticipated. Thomas does not stint on showing the exploitation and pollution inherent in fast fashion. The opening chapter describes sweatshop catastrophes that killed hundreds of workers, then recounts how slow and reluctant fashion brands have been to accept any factory regulation whatsoever. Later chapters, however, are focused more on alternatives and solutions.

The writing style is engaging and journalistic, with each chapter centred upon interviews with enthusiastic people trying to improve fashion. Although these efforts are currently dwarfed by the multinational fast fashion juggernaut, it’s heartening and interesting to learn about them nonetheless. One chapter discusses less environmentally destructive processes for treating jeans, another organic cotton, another fibre recycling, another automation of clothing manufacture. As this is fashion journalism, the interviewees are always described in glowing terms with note made of what they are wearing. I found this amusing without being distracting, familiar from reading Vogue and ELLE back in the day.

I couldn’t help comparing [b:Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|43671670|Fashionopolis The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|Dana Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554846636l/43671670._SY75_.jpg|67945585] with [b:Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion|18690352|Stitched Up The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion|Tansy E. Hoskins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1393647667l/18690352._SY75_.jpg|26536148] which wholeheartedly blames neoliberal capitalism for the state of the fashion industry. [b:Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|43671670|Fashionopolis The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|Dana Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554846636l/43671670._SY75_.jpg|67945585] does not do this and mostly considers improvements on a microeconomic level: technological innovations, ‘rightshoring’, and changes to consumer behaviour. I think the two books compliment each other well. [b:Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|43671670|Fashionopolis The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|Dana Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554846636l/43671670._SY75_.jpg|67945585] has its blind spots, while [b:Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion|18690352|Stitched Up The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion|Tansy E. Hoskins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1393647667l/18690352._SY75_.jpg|26536148] is strong on diagnosis but weaker on suggestions for improvement. To her credit, Thomas notes that not all the options she profiles are compatible or even scalable and acknowledges the need for systemic change from the pursuit of very short-term financial returns. This is a particularly good point:

In fashion and apparel, [Stacy] Flynn said, “we fail to innovate on so many levels because we’ve been reliant on nineteenth-century equipment” – spinners, looms, sewing machines – “and the way we think about that equipment is such a twentieth-century mindset – that resources are infinite, that cash is the only thing that matters. Everything is based on style obsolescence, with consumption being the key driver.”

One limitation Thomas does not acknowledge, though, is that clothing needs to fit people. The cheery discussion of clothing rental companies ignores the fact that they only cater for those lucky enough to fit into high fashion brand sizing. This is obviously not the case for plus-size people and neither is it for me as I’m very short. Until there is a more fundamental change in size availability, surely fashion rental companies will have a limited market.

Personally, the idea of a made-to-order garment that would fit me properly and I could wear and repair for a long time is the ideal. The constant novelty of fashion trends is interesting to observe without participating, as I like to stick with my personal style. It’s also notable, albeit not surprising, that the brands in [b:Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|43671670|Fashionopolis The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|Dana Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554846636l/43671670._SY75_.jpg|67945585] that I looked up online are very expensive. I not talking £50 for a top rather than £5 but £500, or even £1000 from Stella McCartney. For most people reading this book, including me, the easiest way to shop ethically for clothing is to buy second-hand. Charity shops and eBay are my first port of call. For underwear and pyjamas, there are an increasing number of options with lower environmental impact materials and socially responsible manufacture. However, I still guiltily purchase from H&M on occasion simply because, unlike the majority of clothing brands, they sell my size.

[b:Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|43671670|Fashionopolis The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes|Dana Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554846636l/43671670._SY75_.jpg|67945585] did encourage me to reflect on my approach to clothing, without giving me any particularly actionable new information. I enjoyed learning about innovative new fabrics and methods of manufacture. Hopefully over time these will become mainstream and available in a wider range of sizes. Fundamentally, though, the horribly wasteful fast fashion business model has to stop. Maybe current supply chain mayhem caused by the pandemic and geopolitical conflict will forcibly slow it down a bit. show less

Luxury products have democratized greatly, but only at great cost: lower quality, massive outsourcing (Thomas details that EU law governing source disclosure is much laxer than US law, so sellers can import goods from China, rip off the “Made in China” labels, and add “Made in Italy” with only small manipulations), and a pervasive materialism/consumerism that is connected to the massive overspending of the past few decades. Thomas is nostalgic for true luxury, available only to the show more wealthiest of the wealthy, not signalled by huge trademarks but by being “in the know.” It’s an interesting book, marred by Thomas’s uncritical acceptance of the industry’s idea that counterfeiting is a big source of terrorist income and sweatshop/slave labor, without ever comparing counterfeit goods to the equally cheap noncounterfeit goods made in the same factories and sold at Wal-Mart. I am much more persuaded that cheap is the problem. And the luxury brands, by buying into the corporate culture that demands 5% growth every quarter, helped spur the very consumerism/brand consciousness/bargain-hunting by both producers and consumers that drives counterfeiting. This is the world they made. Isn’t it wonderful? show less