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 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. ( )

The next time my daughter complains about her university-level chemistry course I’m going to urge her to stick with it.

It seems there are tremendous employment opportunities for young chemists and biologists to figure out ways to unwind the mess that the synthetics industry has created over the past 60 years.

Today the fashion industry sells 80 billion apparel items every year, and if the global population swells to 8.5 billion by 2030, we will buy 63% more fashion, or about 102 million tons of the stuff.

About 20% of that stuff never even gets sold. Much of it ends up in landfill. And we all now know what happens to the microfibres it generates: they get into everything including the fish we eat, even into the waters of Antarctica.

Then there is the environmental impact of all those dyes and their associated deadly chemicals that get into the rivers and lakes, and the pressure of production on our poorest citizens.

Fortunately, as Dana Thomas points out, there are entrepreneurs and industry leaders investing in methods and technologies to lead us away from our worst instincts; the instinct to buy, buy, buy without due regard for the consequences.

A sidebar to this conversation is the one I regularly have with whomever will listen: eCommerce has stimulated an orgy of courier shipments, and in the fashion industry, as many as 75% of their customers will send back ill-fitting or used online purchases. Each return will result in another courier pickup and delivery.

When you factor in that many of these purchases will stimulate at least four courier trips, the trips to the customer may mean single package trips, you are adding immeasurably to the pollution in our cities and the costs of maintaining our roads.

The returns in my business are about 3.5%, far lower than industry averages, and another reason why shopping in local stores not only is good for local employment, but good for the environment as well.

In theory the mass retailers are more efficient than the neighbourhood store. But if people have little idea what they are buying those efficiencies go out the window. ( )

One of the most interesting, well researched insights into the world of fast fashion and its impact on its workers, consumers, the environment, and beyond. ( )

Understanding the fashion industry

This is an excellently researched book with good high level insight into the various ways fashion is currently unsustainable and unethical and how various new and old companies are trying to address both. Additional props for the citations at the end. ( )