Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Book review: To Die For - Is Fashion Wearing out the World?



by Lucy Siegle (below), 2011

I am not really an environmentalist - mental maybe, but not really environ-mental.
But this was totally eye opening - a fascinating read.

For anyone interested in the environment OR fashion - a MUST read.

Will it change my buying habits? probably not immediately, but I have already started asking retailers about the origins & the nature of the production process in their offerings.

Easy to read, with well organised chapters & sub headings

Lucy covers every angle within the fashion industry -

*The rise of fast fashion & the discounters

*Impact of the recession

*A day in the life of a garment worker in the 3rd world

*The window dressing in sweatshop operations

*Luxury goods - "cheapskating" - the art of blending a luxury "It" item with many low cost items

*The low cost items are out of control - you wear 20% of your wardrobe 80% of the time

*The footprint - water, carbon, energy, toxic dyehouses, respiratory disease with silica from sandblasting jeans, pesticides, digestive and kidney disorder with cotton production, sheep mulesing

*Cheap cashmere

*Exotics - collecting crocodile skins & farming, Botox injected in python for plumpness, fur - by product or main product?

* Leather - toxic tanneries, impact on the Amazon,

*Discarded fashion - sorting of waste for the 3rd world, land fill, inbuilt wastage in the manufacture process

*Fairtrade

*Alternatives - hemp, nettle knits, tree bark, peace silk, crab shells, salmon skin, milk fibre

*Vintage

*Washing, mending, sewing

*Swapping




Harper Collins, 2011
ISBN: 978 0 00 726409 4
318 pages

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