Book review: To Die For - YouLookFab Forum

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Book review: To Die For

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Hi all, just to follow on from Jenn's 30 wears, my husband recently got me a book from the library written by a British journalist, Lucy Siegle. I have just searched the blog and forum to see if the 2011 book "To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing out the World?" has been mentioned on here. I see that it has not, on the forum, but was on a thread by Inge in December 2013. https://youlookfab.com/2013/12.....ggestions/
The 30 wears idea came from this journalist and Livia Firth, and is connected to the Green Carpet challenge. Now I'm not trying here to make you all feel guilty. I had been feeling myself I would like to do more, and partly because I have made my closet overflow in the past 10 years. Before that I was tending to make things last and /or too busy parenting and not caring much about how I looked. We had a bit of a poorer phase in the mid-late 1990s as well just after our third child was born late 1996 when I honestly couldn't afford much. So needing to rebuild a wardrobe after weight gain, having a bigger budget, and other changes in my life led to spending a lot more and overflowing my space until late last year. I suppose I didn't really realise how much I was also affected by the availability of cheap fast fashion in the past 10 years as I wasn't that aware of it, we are always late to the party in NZ for these global trends and all of Topshop, H and M, and Zara have only arrived on our shores in the past few years, both H and M and Zara only in 2016.
I don't want to go on a full guilt trip myself either, have been there and done that in parts of my life in years gone by and it hasn't helped me as a person. I think I would feel though I could solve some personal issues with slowing down my purchase rate ( already doing it) and help the world and workers in the third world more maybe by doing so eg look at buying cotton garments from fair trade cotton. Will see how I go. Some of you may be interested. Cheers.

General

20 replies

Latest reply was from jill58

lozz_oz

Veteran

I watched a TEDX presentation by Lucy Siegel just the other day + another sobering read is by Claire Press 'Wardrobe Crisis - How we went from Sunday best to fast fashion".
It is difficult to keep our clothing purchases in check when we are continually bombarded by advertising etc, so I try hard to op shop for my clothing as much as I can, which helps all round in reducing consumption of new clothing.
I'm sure this topic will receive plenty of comments - thanks for the book recommendation - I'll check out my local library too.
I'll try to add some further comments tomorrow when time permits

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

I just requested this book at the library. Thank you for the recommendation. I find reads like this (or the True Cost movie) to be both disheartening and inspiring. We're caught in a massively broken system that plays with our emotions and our sense of self worth, but we're also empowered to help change it through our actions as consumers.

Anonymous

This is a huge concern of mine, Jenni NZ, and thanks for bringing up this issue. I have recently begun volunteering at a thrift shop run by one of our local animal shelters. I mainly work with the incoming clothing donations. It is truly mind-boggling the amount of clothing that comes in on a daily basis (and we're a rather smallish operation). We can sell some of it, but the fast-fashion donations, for the most part, get sent on to a facility that recycles textiles because the cheap fabrics they're made from don't make for desirable resale items. You should see the bluejeans section alone. Right now, it's out of control, and I kind of want to make a big jean bonfire just to get some breathing room. Why people would go and buy new jeans is beyond me, since most of these jeans are perfectly wearable and available for purchase at next to nothing. It makes me anxious and depressed, and I'm starting to have dreams about being crushed by huge piles of cheaply made clothes. My wish is that people make a stop at a local thrift or consignment store before moving on to look at the new stuff. You might be amazed at what you can find there! And you can often support a great cause while you shop.

Anonymous

I'll see if I can get the book from the library too!!! Some times I am successful, sometimes not so much. If I can't get it there, I'll start haunting second hand book stores and amazon!!! Thanks for the recommendation.

Anonymous

Thank you for the recommendation. The Denver Art Museum has a textile center that last year had (and may still have) a sad video of what happens to those huge amounts of used clothing that get sent to third world countries. In this case it followed them from when they arrived by ship to India to a small village where mostly women and children used knives to rip them up and bundle for recycling. Harsh chemicals were also involved. The whole process is harming people and the environment. If anyone thinks that their cast offs are sent to people who need them to wear, that is NOT what is happening.

rachylou

Veteran

I got into upcycling in my Put A Bird On It phase. There was a mother-daughter team that had a shop. They'd recut and resew garments and sweaters. The items that I got from their shop have outlasted my phase and transitioned well to my current one. I miss them. Goodwill NYC apparently has such a shop within a shop. They need to go national.

Style Fan

Veteran

Thanks for the review Jenn. This is a big concern of mine. I am working towards a small wardrobe with clothes that will last a long time. It can be difficult to find clothing that is not fast fashion at times but worth it.

Deborah

Veteran

It's a brillant book! I have also watched her TED talk and admire the work she and Livia Firth are doing.

Anonymous

I'm adding it to my library list too. Thanks .

Sisi

Veteran

Thank you Jenni ! This is a topic that I am passionates about. I am afraid though that if I will read the book I will become depressed. The waste, not only of clothes, but also of food, water etc., grieves me. I try to do my best to live in a more sustainable way but I know that I still make mistakes. Xtabay, I can imagine your nightmares! By the way, I have never thrifted, maybe it is time to give it a try.

Laura1975

Someone on here linked a while back to a mini documentary on the recycling trade in India. I'm not sure if it's the same one Joy mentioned above but it was sobering. I'll see if i can unearth it.

I must admit when i first heard of #30wears my first thought was, 'Who on earth wears their clothes less than 30times?' My spreadsheets revealed the answer is me. It was a wake up call. I'm trying to lay off the fast fashion.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Interesting tie-in with the change in production cycles, as fast fashion has new summer clothes coming out in the N. hemisphere now, at a time when everything used to be turning to fall.

Xtabay, a fashion blogger I was reading last night wrote about wearing clothes backwards as a way to get a second wear out of them, because she apparently is in the habit of buying something, wearing it once, and then giving it away. She got some backlash in the comments, but just the thought of doing that is .... well, let's say surprising. Humane societies here accept donations of used textiles as comfort material for the animals, mostly sheets and towels, but they will accept clothing items that way if they're voluminous enough. Can you funnel any of the non-resellable donations sideways to the shelter like that?

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

Laura1975, that was me, too! I was shocked to see how little I actually wear some of my clothes.

Ledonna N.

Veteran

On the list to read. I just finished Cinderella ate my daughter.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Oh Ledonna I hope I'm not giving you too much to do!! I think you already follow many helpful principles in your dressing, like thrifting and up cycling. Hope you enjoyed Cinderella ate my Daughter, it made me think a lot and will help me not to get too many princessy items if I ever get any granddaughters... no sign of grandchildren as yet but my kids are still young enough! ( 26, 23, nearly 21).

Gigi

Veteran

Good topic. I hadn't heard of the thirty wears campaign before and was able to look it up and learn more about it. I hadn't been thinking in terms of number of wears for an item before I buy, but based on my own tracking of wears, I know that I need to wear something pretty frequently for about three years before I feel like I get my money's worth out of it (I live in a four-season climate, so it takes a long time to wear all my clothing). The three years' frequent wear turns out to be 30-40 wears.

It can be tricky sometimes knowing whether an item will actually hold out for that 30-40 wears without becoming faded or misshapen. Even items from apparently higher-end retailers (WHBM, Anthro) can pill quite quickly and look worn.

One way I try to be sustainable is to buy items from brands that I know are good possibilities for selling on consignment. That way, if I do happen to tire of an item before it has worn out, chances are good that someone else will buy it at a local shop, and that also benefits my local community.

Astrid

Veteran

Thanks for the recommendation!

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

So. I just finished this book, and I'm now more depressed than inspired. There's a lot more about problems than solutions in To Die For (in 2011, at least, solutions were still very much in their infancy). I read the last few chapters with Google open to check out the ethical brands mentioned and was even more distressed to find many of them had gone out of business and disappeared over the past six years.

I know there are new options out there now, and I was pleased to see that some larger brands like Gap and Nike were, at the time of publication, on the forefront of fixing supply chain issues and making real change, but it still feels like a huge hill to climb. It's frightening how quickly the fast fashion change came upon us. It happened within my lifetime...my adult lifetime, even, and I think it will be harder to undo than it was to create.

The book had a heavy emphasis on British high street brands, and I found myself wishing for an American version, so I put Overdressed, by Elizabeth Cline on hold to read next.

Anonymous

Jenn -- Your other post has convinced me to read this book .... even if I have to buy it on Kindle. Yay.

jill58

Veteran

I've been meaning to read this for awhile. Thanks for the reminder Jenni.