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Overdressed
Book

Overdressed

The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

Elizabeth L. Cline
Portfolio, 2012

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Have you ever shopped for clothing at a discount store and purchased low-priced items that you thought were a bargain? If so, you are a (perhaps unwitting) participant in “fast fashion.” Consumers used to buy quality outfits that were meant to last and be repaired, but today they treat clothing as a “disposable good." In her breezy study of the fast-fashion garment industry, Elizabeth L. Cline explains why this is a bad idea – for workers, the clothing industry, the economy, the environment and consumers. Cline will inspire anyone who purchases clothing to think about the values it represents, and maybe even take a sewing class or two.

Take-Aways

  • Americans buy more clothes than anything except food, and have come to view their clothing as disposable and transient.
  • “Fast fashion” is the garment industry’s quest to keep new products constantly available and to stoke this unnecessary need.
  • Traditional department stores have given way to large multinational clothing companies.

About the Author

Writing by Elizabeth L. Cline has appeared in The New Republic and The Village Voice, among other publications.

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