Fashionopolis, by Dana Thomas

Fashionopolis, by Dana Thomas

Planet Books Review:

In this informative book, fashion journalist Dana Thomas convincingly lays out multiple arguments against fast fashion (low-cost, mass-produced clothing) and the cycle of rapidly manufacturing, purchasing, and discarding clothes that is very much a part of today’s world.

She points out “American shoppers snap up five times more clothing now than they did in 1980,” that fast fashion also preys on consumers’ insecurities, that synthetic dyes and fertilisers have harmful effects on the environment, that southern US mill towns emptied when clothing manufacturers sent those jobs overseas, and that outsourcing grievously exploits workers

Later in the book, Thomas examines efforts to mitigate these effects through “slow fashion,” such as Levi’s using domestically produced organic indigo for some of its denim, and small, socially conscious companies bringing their manufacturing operations back to the US. Thomas interviews individuals such as Natalie Chanin, who grew up in Florence, Alabama., “the Cotton T-shirt Capital of the World,” and, upon returning home, has reimagined how clothing can be produced locally in a manner that exploits neither its employees nor the environment.

Thoroughly reported and persuasively written, Thomas’ call for more responsible practices in fashion will speak to both industry professionals and socially conscious consumers. 

The book should be required reading for every single person who buys clothing and thinks of shopping as a fun, harmless activity.

Once high fashion runway models leave the stage, the new season garments are immediately copied and knock-offs are reverse-engineered to be sold in our shopping malls.

Review by Ian Williams

About the author:

Dana Thomas began her journalism career working for the Style section of The Washington Post in 1988. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and the Paris correspondent for Harper's Bazaar Australia. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, published by The Penguin Press in 2007.

In February 2015, Penguin Press published Thomas's second book, Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, an investigative double biography of two monumental British fashion designers who succumbed to the pressures of corporate luxury fashion in a globalised world. Thomas lives in Paris and is a member of the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris and the Overseas Press Club. She taught journalism at The American University of Paris from 1996 to 1999. In 1987, she received the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Foundation Scholarship and the Ellis Haller Award for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism. Fashionopolis was published in September 2019 by Head of Zeus Ltd London.

Book Details:

ISBN: 9781789546088

Publication Date: 23/03/2020

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Binding: B-Format Paperback

Genre: Fashion & Society