Obsessed with Overdressed

OK it’s now official! I am at this moment completely obsessed with my new book called “Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion”, by Elizabeth Cline. This is the book I mentioned earlier that I had gotten from the library. Well, by the time I had read the first chapter I was so frustrated that I couldn’t underline in it (they frown upon that apparently), that I just HAD to go to the store and get my own. I couldn’t even wait and order it online for cheaper (not much). I had to have it now! And no, I don’t usually have a problem with instant gratification, I can hold out for something if I really want it. But this was different.

I’m halfway through so far, but up to this point I feel like my head is going to snap off my neck because I keep nodding so much as I read! This woman is confirming everything I have felt to be true about this industry. It’s almost as if she was my inside voice and it is now on paper and backed up with a whole bunch of proof and research. Thank you Ms. Cline for doing so much of the work for many of us! She is currently up there on my list of top favourite people.

In her book, Cline describes many of the factors that have impacted the Garment Industry over the past 50 years culminating in the rise of what she calls Cheap Fashion aka Fast Fashion. This is a trend that has overtaken the entire fashion industry and changed it from the bottom up. Massive companies such as Forever 21, H&M, Target or in our case JOE Fresh (Canadian) have the ability to produce items sometimes with a turn-around of 2 weeks, which means that new garments are continually introduced in their stores, luring consumers to buy more often. These items are not necessarily well made by any means, and their measure of quality is, as she puts it, “relative”.  Cline says, “When buying trendy, cheap fashion, quality has a relative meaning. It is best measured in washes. As in, how many times can you wash it before the fabric pills or stains, the garment looses its shape, a button falls off or a seam busts open”. IN WASHES! How many times have you heard that! That is so true of this generation of disposable consumers. Never in a million years would you have heard that from your mother or grandmother. We’ve grown accustomed to throwing things that no longer serve our purposes, we are the disposable generation.

The thing about cheap fashion is that it not only impacts those who buy it, but the whole chain of consumers, as better made design houses were forced to lower their standards in order to compete with these new brands. The whole thing is a huge vicious circle that can only be stopped by becoming educated consumers.

In the next few posts I will try to unravel the massiveness of this sustainability concept. And we’ll attack it in bite size pieces. We will explore the economic, environmental and ethical ramifications of not being sustainable and its current effects. But at the same time we’ll research ways to change that bit by bit by finding attainable alternatives and options to slowly change the status quo. This is the goal. Onwards.

I suppose in the meantime I should also finish reading the book…

For now, check out this article by Julian Sancton from Bloomberg Businessweek Lifestyle, reviewing “Overdressed”: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-21/book-review-overdressed-by-elizabeth-l-dot-cline