Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas
Title: Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes
Author: Dana Thomas
Published: 2019
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 320
So I’ve fallen a bit behind again. Not sure how I can really excuse that given the continued shelter-in-place restrictions – though, to be fair, they have eased up some and I’ve been meeting more with friends outside. To catch up, I’m planning on doing shorter posts than usual for the books I didn’t feel too strongly about (ie this one).
Clothes don’t have to be made by poorly paid, poorly treated workers using outmoded machinery. They can be produced in vertically integrated communities, on clean, quiet factory floors controlled by tech-trained assistants. And it can happen in communities that had long ago given up on manufacturing. Those assistants could be people you know. Or maybe the plant will be just up the road. Automation may not create thousands of manufacturing jobs, but the ones it does create—a hundred here, a hundred there—will be good, safe, and well-paying. Strange as it sounds, technology will bring humanity to the supply chain.
In Brief:
This book was fine, but honestly, I would have enjoyed it more as an article. There were some interesting anecdotes and impressively thorough research, but I ultimately found it painfully out-of-touch and unhelpful for an average (or even somewhat-above-average) consumer.
Rating: 3.1
Synopsis:
In the interest of catching up, is it awful if I just cite the Goodreads synopsis here? The lack of a plot also makes it a bit difficult, and I have six posts I’m trying to write quickly at this point. Sorry!
An investigation into the damage wrought by the colossal clothing industry and the grassroots, high-tech, international movement fighting to reform it
What should I wear? It's one of the fundamental questions we ask ourselves every day. More than ever, we are told it should be something new. Today, the clothing industry churns out 80 billion garments a year and employs every sixth person on Earth. Historically, the apparel trade has exploited labor, the environment, and intellectual property--and in the last three decades, with the simultaneous unfurling of fast fashion, globalization, and the tech revolution, those abuses have multiplied exponentially, primarily out of view. We are in dire need of an entirely new human-scale model. Bestselling journalist Dana Thomas has traveled the globe to discover the visionary designers and companies who are propelling the industry toward that more positive future by reclaiming traditional craft and launching cutting-edge sustainable technologies to produce better fashion.
In Fashionopolis, Thomas sees renewal in a host of developments, including printing 3-D clothes, clean denim processing, smart manufacturing, hyperlocalism, fabric recycling--even lab-grown materials. From small-town makers and Silicon Valley whizzes to such household names as Stella McCartney, Levi's, and Rent the Runway, Thomas highlights the companies big and small that are leading the crusade.
We all have been casual about our clothes. It's time to get dressed with intention. Fashionopolis is the first comprehensive look at how to start.
Where I’m At:
I’m trying to re-shape this section a bit. After listening to Ezra Klein’s recent (excellent) podcast about deep reading and critical thinking, I realized that just writing about what I’d been up to wasn’t really what I was going for. Not that that has to be eliminated altogether, but it’s more about explaining my background and what I’m bringing to this particular book, that affected my reading of it.
So here’s where I am in the context of Fashionopolis: a woman in her mid-twenties, still getting used to financial independence and relative stability. I have a well-paying job – more than I would have ever expected to be making at this point in my life, given my interest in non-profits and the public sphere. I’m not rich by any means – San Francisco is expensive, y’all – but I’m very lucky. I have a good amount of savings in my 401k, I can afford ridiculous rent, I can (under normal circumstances) go out to eat and drink now and then without much worry. Most relevant for this book, I can afford, at least now and then, to buy myself nice things.
This feels new. I spent most of my life prowling sales racks and chain stores, think Target and H&M. My family wasn’t poor, but I was taught an emphasis on careful frugality and responsibility – my parents had two daughters to raise and put through college, after all. Now, though I still try to be responsible with my spending, I’ve slowly come to realize I can afford to pay a little more for my things, invest in quality that will last instead of something that’s cheap/cute but will wear out. I also realized I can afford to pay attention to where my money is going – what kind of business practices are my dollars supporting? – and that’s important for me.
I was hoping that this book would serve as some sort of guide for me, to help me be more thoughtful about where and how I buy clothes. Spoiler for below: it did not.
Getting Into it:
Like I mentioned above, this book is extremely well-researched. Though this makes it somewhat dense and academic (pluses in my book), it’s also clearly written, with a strong and earnest voice. It felt a bit like listening to someone rant eloquently about something they’re passionate about – compelling and insightful, even if you yourself don’t care that much.
The main issue I had with this book was how out-of-touch and tone-deaf it seemed. Nearly all of the solutions presented in the book – sustainable designers, innovative materials, 3-D printing – are entirely out of reach for the type of person who would be engaging in fast fashion in the first place. Thomas writes casually about things like buying a $1,000 dress or $128 on a t-shirt, numbers that made my heart seize. Not much time is spent on thrifting or buying used, which was the only option that really seemed attainable to me.
It’s possible then that wearers of fast fashion shouldn’t have actually been the target of the book – that it should be intended for those involved in high fashion, trying to push them towards more sustainability and innovation in their practices. That just wasn’t really clearly the case, though. Instead, it seemed that Thomas tried to straddle both worlds, and it just didn’t work out very well.
It’s also possible that I’m just selfish, and this wasn’t the book I wanted to read. For me, I’d be more interested in what I can do with the budget of someone who can afford better than fast fashion, but certainly not designer clothes, and doesn’t know where to start. I wanted to know how to tell if something is ethical or not, have some ideas for brands I could look to for inspiration.
All this said – it’s an informative book if you’re looking to learn more about the human and environmental impact of the fashion industry and some examples of what’s being done about it within that world. Reading it has made me think a bit before buying, and reinforced my motivation to be critical and more open to parting with more money if it means higher quality and sustainability. It just didn’t really tell me how.
