Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas

FASHIONOPOLIS by Dana Thomas is subtitled “The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes” and it is clearly a topic of interest to millennials and their younger counterparts in Generation Z. In fact, I have two students who independently chose to explore fast fashion for Junior Theme so far this year. Thomas is a best-selling author and frequent contributor to a number of publications on topics related to style.  In this new non-fiction work, she begins by describing the problem and noting that “in the last twenty years, the volume of clothes Americans throw away has doubled – from 7 million to 14 million tons. That equals 80 pounds per person per year.” Thomas continues, offering numerous examples to illustrate the “creative thievery, indifference to others, corruption [and] pollution” which she argues categorizes the industry. Later in the book, Thomas shares interviews with innovative practitioners and points to more efforts towards sustainability, like exploring the use of organic cotton or more natural dyes.  She also outlines efforts by Amazon (now a major player in retail apparel) to manufacture clothing on demand – after it has been ordered.

Although less practical and action-oriented than The Conscious Closet, FASHIONOPOLIS is an intriguing blend of social issues (working conditions, NAFTA, environmental impact), fashion and technology (robots who sew, new bio-fabrics, and 3D-printing). Thomas has included almost thirty pages of notes, a selected bibliography and a helpful index for researchers. We will be purchasing and pairing FASHIONOPOLIS with other relevant titles like Inconspicuous Consumption or the much older The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy when we make book recommendations on this topic.

 

The Taste of Many Mountains by Bruce Wydick

I simply can’t decide what this book, The Taste of Many Mountains by Bruce Wydick, about poverty and globalization, wants to be:

- A fiction story  - like when it tells about the young woman in 1980’s Guatemala; OR

- A “semi-fiction” work – when it focuses on 4 grad students in 2007; OR

- A non-fiction text when it educates about randomized sampling, the varieties of coffee and fair trade statistics.

I do think this was an admirable attempt to focus attention on an important and complex problem, but, sadly, I kept getting pulled out of the story every time the author switched focus. Most annoying were the four graduate students who, frankly, seemed clueless at times.  How could they be so concerned about exploitation and then (blissfully ignorant?) simply sit down to eat a poor family’s lunch?

Here is my suggestion:  publish a companion piece which visually tells the story of the coffee growers and makes readers truly care about them and their situation.  Some great role models for this would be Material World by Peter Menzel; possibly What Matters by David Elliot Cohen or even the format used in the newer Chuck Close: FaceBook.  Consider contrasting the living situation in Guatemala with that of coffee drinkers in Seattle and elsewhere ... Inviting students around the country to send photos and stories ... Be creative and encourage participation.

Also, to be more effective and to raise discussion, keep this as a work of non-fiction or as a type of memoir.  See, for example, titles like Kids of Kabul by Ellis (which my students love); or I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai or Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (also used in our curriculum) or possibly Little Princes by Conor Grennan.  Somewhat text heavy, Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy by Rivoli is another example of tackling these trade issues for a wider audience. [image source]

If it is not possible to re-shape the story, then please add more extensive and accessible footnotes like Rivoli did. Here, in Taste of Many Mountains, the author lists references by chapter, but it would have been helpful to have an bibliography (annotated, if possible) for future student work.  For example, Wydick refers to Black Gold by Antony Wild, but I do not think he mentions the DVD by the same name; he includes Uncommon Grounds by Pendergast, but does not seem to include the more recent Coffee: a Comprehensive Guide edited by Thurston and others.  And where are the website links?  I saw a very few, but several more about fair trade (even World Bank, IMF? WTO?) and sustainability/biodiversity (Rainforest Alliance?) could certainly have been included. There are literally millions of websites which discuss fair trade and coffee. Overall, this is a book with potential that is based on an amazing amount of work and I hope that the author and his team continue to produce material which will help us all learn more.