Recently I read Elizabeth Cline’s book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion.  She was driven to explore what is going on behind the scenes of all the mass production.  She traveled to China, Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Los Angeles, and the garment district in NY.  Elizabeth visited several foreign factories and “told them I owned a company called Fashion Forward Inc., which of course I don’t, and printed up light pink business cards from my home computer with my apartment address and phone number.  I put together a “line” of cheap fashion out of my own closet in order to ask the factories how much it would cost to produce my garments with each of them. I crossed my fingers that the language barrier would help me fudge the rest.”

She explores and encourages us to question where our clothing comes from, how it is made, and what choices we have about how we choose to shop.  She  writes about the fashion industry and how “Most mass market clothing is now so poorly made and ordinary that many consumers intuit that it’s not worth much money.”

When I was a child I remember how most of my clothing was made by my grandmothers or my mother.  Women sewed on a regular basis.  Back then it was often cheaper to make your own clothing, plus you could choose the quality of your clothing by sewing it.  I remember one of my grandmothers telling me when I was an adolescent that before I bought any article of clothing I should test the seams, “pull at them and make sure they are secure.” Many of today mass marketed clothing is so cheaply made that if you pull the seams they may start to unravel.  I know for myself this is one of the main reasons I choose to shop at thrift stores.  For the money I want to spend I can find better quality of clothing in a thrift store.  The person who owned the clothing before me could afford to buy the brands and quality that I like, so I may as well enjoy their castoffs.

It is easy enough to fall into consuming too much, more than we need in general. There may be times when we haven’t stopped to be more “conscious” about our choices.  This is what Elizabeth explores. Along the way she brings up various options available to us.  She writes about the current trend of fast fashion in the US.  “Fast fashion consumers, not surprisingly, shop more than other consumers.  A lot more.”  Many chain stores now are thriving from this fast fashion cycle.  Customers return numerous times throughout the year, far more than in the days of four season shopping cycles.  Designers are under tremendous pressure, which Elizabeth also explores in her book.  The entire fashion industry has gone though tremendous changes.  The United States has set a perilous precedent in its shopping habits.  Now China is picking up on our shopping frenetic energy and they are also in the throws of their own fast fashion cycle of buying, mass production for themselves and everything that follows.  It really is time to start thinking about how this cycle effects all of us, if you haven’t been thinking about it previously.

“In her book she states “Every year, Americans throw away 12.7 million tons, or 68 pounds of textiles per person, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which also estimates that 1.6 million tons of this waste could be recycled or reused.” (1)

I personally don’t buy that much but it’s a terrifying thought to realize that many people do.  All of this environmentally takes a toll on our planet.  She also explains how so much of the clothing that goes into thrift shops doesn’t necessarily stay there.  It is still a good idea to donate to thrift stores, however they eventually have to give the clothing to textiles recyclers down the line.  The recyclers can use much of the clothing but not necessarily all of it.  So if we consume too much we risk increasing waste.  Even the clothing that gets shipped to third world countries have changing fashion scenes.  The clothing being outsourced there may or may not be used as we think it will be.

The dyes used to produce clothing also present problems.  Elizabeth states “China, where 10 percent of the world’s textiles are now produced, is an environmental disaster.”  She describes   how she suffered a sinus infection that lasted for months after visiting in China’s Gaundong Province in 20011. The pollution was horrendous.   She also writes” China’s garment industry operates on an intimidating scale.  It’s several times bigger than any garment industry that’s happened anywhere in the world at any point in history.  They have more than 40,000 clothing manufacturer’s and 15 million garment industry jobs.  (2)  Compare that to the 1.45 million garment and industry jobs the United States had at peak employment some 40 years ago. “(3)

She goes on to describe how China’s economy is flourishing while the United States has been going through years of suffering.  Thousands of garment workers in the US have lost jobs.  Currently in China manufacturers   are encouraging their people to buy what is made in their own country.  This is driving the cost of production in China higher and making China’s economy stronger.  All of this is food for thought as we can be invited to further examine our own choices of our own spending habits.

We could choose to buy clothing made only in the United States.  We could choose to just consume less and be more mindful of where things are made. We could choose to sew all our clothing, or thrift, buy vintage, trade or choose a combination of these alternatives.

Elizabeth interviewed a woman in Los Angeles, CA who had worked in the garment industry for many years.  The woman told her “Most of the garment workers in LA she knows put in ten-hour days and work six days a week making countless garments just so they can drag their earnings up to minimum wage.”  Most of the workers “are paid per finished garment (known as piece work).”  So “Made in the USA “ also has its oxymorons.  One factory Elizabeth visited Alta Gracia, in the Dominican Republic produces basic clothing for colleges.  Their garment workers get paid “a living wage” so their workers have much better opportunities available to them.

Elizabeth goes on to write about the Slow Fashion movement.  A designer in Brooklyn, Sarah Kate Beaumont has been sewing all her clothing since the summer of 2008.  Beaumont teaches sewing lessons as well and has a blog called Very Sweet Life.  Beaumont states “Home sewn garments, similar to home cooked foods, are made with care and sustenance.  In a sense clothing can be nourishing.”    Elizabeth signed up for sewing lessons and became very excited about sewing.  In the long run she chose to use sewing mostly for repairing and altering her clothing.

The term “Slow Fashion” was coined in 2007 by Kate Fletcher in 2007.  Fletcher is a designer with the Centre of Sustainable Fashion in the UK.  Slow Fashion is not a seasonal trend that comes and goes like animal print, but a sustainable fashion movement that is gaining momentum.”  Slow Fashion encourages us to think about quality over quantity, to question where garments come from and to be conscious of our part in the impact of our choices on the environment.

I strongly recommend Elizabeth Cline’s Book “Overdressed- the High Cost of Cheap Fashion” to those who wish to learn more about mass production of garments.  It is well worth the time it takes to read.   It will open your perspective to various options and allow you to feel more comfortable about your choices down the road.  You might even be inclined to learn to sew!

Footnotes:

(1). Jana Hawley, “Sustainable Fashion: Why now? A Conversation Exploring Issues, Practices, and Possiblities,” Economic Impact of Textile and Clothing Recycling (New York: Fairchild Books, 2008):207-32.

(2). George Wehrfritz and Alexandra A. Seno, Succeeding at Sewing,” Newsweek, January 10, 2005.

(3). Standard & Poor/s January 2011 Industry Surveys, Apparel & Footwear: Retailers & Brands.