Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

I found this book to be both highly engaging and informative. As a textile designer in the fashion industry, I'm particularly interested in the effects of evolving consumer expectations and the shift to lower-cost and lower-quality goods. Cline put many of the trends I see at work everyday- increased deliveries, the shift to polyester, lower quality of goods, etc- into perspective by discussing the industry's manufacturing history and comparing it to current practices in garment production and distribution. After reading Overdressed, I feel I have a much better understanding of how fashion companies today are influenced by (and forced into following) the fast fashion business model in the interest of staying competitive in a highly saturated market. I agree with some of the other reviews about the questionable editing. I did notice some awkward phrasing and also several of the same examples recycled into different chapters. But I could forgive these literary missteps as I so enjoyed Cline's impassioned and personable writing style, in addition to her well-researched ideas. I read it in a weekend, which I think says enough. Highly recommended reading for those of us in the industry, as well as for curious consumers.

This book came to my attention through one of the fashion blogs I follow, FashionAtForty. In this post she (not only looks really cute) but also gave a pretty good overview of what she had found in the book thus far, having read only the first half. I have conflicted feelings about clothing. On the one hand, I'm very aware that I should be able to look great with fewer items than what I actually own; on the other hand, all of my sources for current trends -- blogs, magazines, style shows, and shops -- show people in an almost infinite mix of shapes, colors, and prints. How much is reasonable to carry in my closet? How much is a reasonable clothing budget? Overdressed didn't give me answers to these questions, but it did offer more meaningful factors to consider when I make purchasing decisions than simply "do I want it?" The book focuses primarily on "fast fashion," defined as "a radical method of retailing that has broken away from seasonal selling and puts out new inventory constantly throughout the year. Fast-fashion merchandise is typically priced much lower than its competitors'." The introduction, "Seven Pairs of $7 Shoes," and the first chapter, "I Have Enough Clothing to Open a Store," describe the shopping habits of the author herself and of young women known as "haulers," who make YouTube videos of their shopping hauls. The focus of these two chapters is the consumerism that breeds from the price and abundance of fast fashion. I watched 3 minutes of a 15 minute haul video in the interests of research... I have never seen anything so incredibly painful in my life. She didn't even try on the clothes, just sort of held it up enough to see the fabric, but not the shape of the garment, and talked about what she liked about it. Chapter 2, "How America Lost Its Shirts," describes the history of the garment industry in the United States. Chapter 3, "High and Low Fashion Make Friends," examines the relationship between price and value. Summary: there isn't necessarily a correlation between high cost and high quality. In Chapter 4, "Fast Fashion," Cline recounts the history of fast fashion and its impact on the retail world and also the United States garment industry. Chapter 5, "The Afterlife of Cheap Clothes," was perhaps the most painful section of the book. Cline debunks what she calls "the clothing deficit myth." So often we buy clothes thinking that if they don't work out, no problem, we'll pass them on to a donation recipient like Goodwill and they will find their way to some needy person grateful for our cast-offs. "Of all the clothing that we dump off on charities' doorsteps... less than 20 percent gets sold through stores. About half of it doesn't even get a shot at the stores, going straight into the postconsumer waste stream and on to such facilities as Mid-West Textile" from where it will be sorted and sold by the ton to secondhand clothing dealers, rag companies to be pulped and made into insulation or carseat stuffing, bundled to be sold by the ton to Africa, or put into landfills. Chapter 6, "Sewing is a Good Job, a Great Job," describes the industry conditions for garment workers and some innovative business efforts. In Chapter 7, "China and the End of Cheap Fashion," Cline recounts how she went undercover to various clothing manufacturers in China and Bangladesh to learn more about the overseas industry. She found many of her assumptions about garment manufacturing were outdated and misguided, and that seeing the conditions, not only of the factories themselves, but of the environments in which they operated, changed her understanding of the fashion industry. She also predicted the coming end of fast-fashion as we know it: the rising standard of living in China will drive prices up, and other countries will not be able to move into the void as national infrastructure in places like Bangladesh will prevent them from being able to operate under just-in-time principles on short deadlines, as fast fashion requires. Chapter 8, "Make, Alter, and Mend," is perhaps the weakest chapter of the book. This is not entirely Cline's fault. The conditions she describes that led to the rise of fast fashion -- international agreements such as NAFTA, pricing conditions, the intense marketing practices to which consumers are susceptible, and the economy generally -- are not conditions that can easily be altered, no matter how alert consumers are. Where we can make alternate choices in food purchasing practices by choosing to buy organic or local or at a farmer's market, no such alternate clothing marketplace exists. I can attest myself that it is difficult to determine the manufacturing practices of any given clothing brand, and the "fast" nature of fast fashion means that no single brand has consistent practices among its entire line of offerings. Eaters can grow even a small amount of vegetables in their own homes, but learning to make clothing is much more complicated, expensive, and time and labor intensive. Cline spends a lot of time talking up the possibilities of making one's own clothing, or buying refashioned vintage (a possibility that erodes with every passing year), but even she admits that she doesn't know if she'll be spending time sewing her own wardrobe two years in the future. Her most meaningful suggestion is to slow down, to buy more intentionally, to pay closer attention to fit and quality of construction, to be willing to spend more per piece while holding total amount spent steady. Cline ends the book on a hopeful note in Chapter 9, "The Future of Fashion." She lists a few conscientious designers and clothing retailers who are working to bring quality and morality back to the fashion industry and describes their methods for achieving those ends. In all, this was a fascinating, eye-opening read. Cline has an engaging voice. She used the contents of her own closet and her own shopping habits to illustrate the nature of fast fashion. She did an amazing amount of research, including, as mentioned, her trips to China, Bangladesh, and the Dominican Republic, but also research into historical shopping and manufacturing practices, public policy conditions, post-consumer processing practices, and the environmental impact of textile production. I would really have loved it if she could have offered more guidance into choosing labels and researching the values that guide brands' manufacturing practices. Illustrations would have been incredibly helpful -- both of the factories she visited, and also of the clothing construction she described. It should be noted that I read this book on my Kindle, and I do not know if such illustrations were available in the paper copies. Other reviewers have commented on some of the editing issues in this book. As I read, I did note where those came up, but in many cases they were misused words rather than formatting or copy-editing mistakes, so I chalk that up to a failure with the publisher. I appreciate Cline putting together such a well-researched, eye-opening book, that will certainly guide my future purchasing decisions.

This book is simply a must-read for anyone who wears clothes. That basic fact of life in the twenty-first century could not be more different from what it was even a decade ago, let alone at this point back in the twentieth century. People from that era would not believe the clothing industry of today! Ms. Cline thoroughly researched her subject matter, visiting offshore clothing manufacturers while posing as a potential client. That subterfuge allowed her to get an inside look at realities most of the purchasing public knows absolutely nothing about. If you had read this book, for example, you would not have been surprised that Ralph Lauren had the uniforms for our American Olympic team manufactured in China. What else is manufactured outside of the U.S. for sale here? It's incredible, and it's information that totally changed my outlook on clothes buying. I've gotten back to my sewing machine and have begun to value sewing skills that I had let slide for several years. Even if sewing is not for you at all, this book will enlighten you about an everyday necessity with a complex back story. Ms. Cline tells that story in fascinating detail and does the buying public a valuable service.

Good price good shape for used paperback Thought provoking

"Overdressed" is a book about fast fashion written by a consumer of fast fashion, basically detailing the social and ecological ills of cheaply made clothing that is viewed by some as "disposable". The author herself admits to being an avid consumer of fast fashion, but her bulk buying habits far outpace my occasional few-item purchase at the retailers she scorns. I agree with the premise of this book, which is to be more socially conscious about what I buy, where I buy it, and how I use and dispose of it. However, that is pretty much all I can give her. The first thing that irked me was the implication that consumers "have chosen low-priced clothes made in other countries" (page 5). Looking through my closet, the only thing made in the U.S. are a few pairs of Vince Jeans which run about 150 bucks a pop from Nordstrom (all of my other jeans are in the 20-40 dollar price range); everything else is from China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the occasional Malaysia or India. Clothing in that price range, when coupled with inflation and declining wages, is hardly a "choice". People buy what is readily available and affordable, and that is your H&M, Forever 21, and even Gap and BR which pretty much all make their clothing in the East Asian countries. She later contradicts herself by admitting that shopping cheap is generally a "nonchoice" (page 6), but she flip flops throughout the book. The second thing was that she talks about people "treat clothing as if it is disposable" (page 3); while that may be true for some consumers, particularly those who tend to dispose of an item once it is "out of season", some of my most beloved pieces of clothing are eight years old and I have had them since high school (I'm 22 now). I have had jeans with holes in the knees that I patched up, made into 'cutoffs' and then shorts when the material started to fray. I wear tank tops around the house until they rip beyond wear; then they become cleaning rags. I have a James Dean t-shirt I bought for four dollars back in 2006 and still wear on a regular basis. Not everyone who shops the occasional H&M treats their clothing as disposable; many of us are well-aware of the consequences of textiles ending up in landfills. H&M has a clothing recycling program, and many large cities such as New York City offer textile recycling. Old shoes can be donated to Nike where they may end up as the rubber surfaces of a playground. To represent the opinions of American consumers, Cline chose Youtube fashion "bloggers" to illustrate her point, who are hardly representative of the average consumer. These self-appointed fashion gurus regularly post videos of their "hauls", which is slang for going into a store, typically a fast fashion store, and spending hundreds of dollars on clothing in order to show it off to their Youtube subscribers. Most of us don't live that way; we buy stuff as we see that we need it, or buy something because we like it, or because it is on sale and we will use it later (ie buying a winter coat for next year during spring when it gets discounted). One of the Youtube bloggers exclaims, "I like things that are disposable, so I can wear this shirt two times and then throw it away" (page 122). Comments like this further illustrate how removed these blogger/fashion gurus are from the rest of the world; it's certainly not my friends or myself who throw things away after two uses--most reasonable people would think that to be incredibly wasteful and unsustainable. Later in the book, Cline talks about clothing recycling programs and says "there's something about for-profit clothing recycling that bothers consumers" (page 130). As someone who has both donated to and shopped from thrift stores for the greater part of my life, I can tell you that I have absolutely no problem, none whatsoever, with someone profiting off of my castaway clothing. I really don't have ill feelings towards someone making a living off of finding a use for my old apparel; in fact, I would much rather see my old clothing get resold than see it go in a trash can and end up in a landfill. I get the feeling that most people feel the same way, as companies that have destroyed and thrown away unsold clothing have come under public outcry for not donating the unsold clothing to those in need. Not everything is about making or not making a profit, it's about doing the right thing. If there's a factory out there that can take my six year old jeans with unrepairable holes in the butt and make them into a plastic bottle or a tote bag which they can profit from, more power to 'em. When she isn't opining on the oblivious negligence of the reader, the book is actually quite compelling. Cline spends quite a bit of time describing the history of modern clothing production and distribution (the passage about the closing of Filene's, a Boston department store which had operated since 1912, was heartbreaking), and the parts where she recalls her visits to China and Bangladesh to see clothing factories firsthand is eye-opening. I wish she had spent more time with the factual evidence than the proselytizing; it would have made for a more attractive read. As for Cline herself, even today she doesn't exclude the idea of the "occasional fast fashion fix" (pg 218), which made the 200-odd page condemnation of everything fast fashion stands for fall a little flat. It's a fast and interesting look at clothing production, but it ultimately failed to relate to me as a reader about my own clothing consumption.

I remember the day I first shopped at Forever21 with my mom. "Finally," I thought. "Clothes that are cute AND fit me." I was sixteen then. Now more than ten years later, I hardly have any clothes at all. My mom had encouraged me to throw away clothes every year because she hated clutter and clothes that are hardly worn. In fact, she asked me to clean out my closet last week since I'm hardly home now. When I got sick and tired of not having clothes to wear because I'm older now, I started looking up "good quality clothes." Some websites explained wearing 100% cotton was better. That's when I realized most of my clothes are polyester or some other unknown fabric. Viscose? Rayon? No one ever told me that the material of fabric mattered. I never thought of it. That's when I stumbled upon this book. It explained everything I had been wondering for years. How did Forever21 manage a two dollar tank top? Why is it so hard to find clothes that last or stay in style? How my mom used to say, "Buy it. It's cheap. If you don't like it, well, it's only 10 dollars." And why an older fellow once said to me, "Wow, you buy a lot of clothes. More than once a month?" (I bought clothes once a week because I thought that was normal.) There may be writing errors in the book as stated by another reviewer, but I'm just looking for answers. And this book did the job. It was a fun read.

Reading this book helped me make sense of why most of today's clothes seem cheap and poorly made. They ARE! This book takes you behind the scenes into the world of fashion, garment making and marketing, but don't get turned off if you are not a fashionista! This is a book every consumer should read, whether you are a twenty-something collecting your own pay check for the first time, a working Mom with kids to clothe, or a senior on a tight budget. It is a shocker. We the consumers are responsible for the decline. Why? Because we want current fashion at a cheap price, and merchandisers have figured out how to give it to us. But if you are a savvy shopper who heads to a thrift shop or consignment shop to buy better quality at equally low prices, beware! As cheap clothes flood the market, more and more are finding their way into second hand stores. Soon quality clothes will go the way of clunky TV and computer monitors and dial-up telephones. And it's not all about "Made in China." The book is an easy read, but packed with information. The author appears to have done her homework. I gave it four stars because I think it's an important book -- didn't give it five because it xould have used some tighter editing. For the record, I seldom give 5 stars!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and since finishing it have recommended it, loaned it, and am about to purchase a gift copy. Cline's writing style is articulate, entertaining, and conversational yet full of thorough research and documented information. She approaches her subject in an organized and inclusive way, covering aspects of the fashion trade I had never considered and details of construction I had noticed but not reflected on. Whether you shop at thrift shops or the mall, the book invites you to see your spending choices within the economics of global fashion. I had trouble putting it down, finished it in two days, and have not stopped thinking about it weeks later. She presents the "big picture" with just the right balance of relevant history, travel, investigation, commentary, evocative description and clear explanation to keep the story interesting and relevant from the first page to the last. Bravo!

Chilling stuff. I don't usually have 'epiphanies' from books and really dislike all that Millennial, Paltrow-esque twaddle about how you should make your own jam and wash your hair in unicorn tears for the good of the planet, but Cline writes a fact-heavy piece without resorting to twee sentimentality. She just opens her own wardrobe (which by the sounds of it looks like 80% of wardrobes in the West) and does a simple cost analysis of the pieces there. The ethical questions flow naturally from there - how can a store sell $5 shirts on a regular basis and not go bust within a week - more to the point, who's getting screwed for this to happen? Turns out - we all are. You don't have to be incredibly perceptive to notice that clothes from H&M don't last for ages, but when Cline sources 80's items from charity shops and weighs them alongside modern equivalents, it's quite astounding to see how little material is being used nowadays. I'm not saying this book will make you set your wardrobe on fire or join a commune, but after reading it, you might be more inclined to shop for your disposable party pieces of eBay and buy the more serious items from quality stores, even it they do cost much more.

内容はファストファッションにとどまらずファッション業界全般（有名高級ブランド、アメリカの紡績、縫製業の栄枯盛衰など）に及ぶ。クローゼットの中には３０ドル以上の服がないというファストファッション（主にH&M,ターゲット）愛用者の著者がファッション業界の本を書くというのは「挑戦」だったと思われる。全身安物に身を包み（ほめるところがないのでドアマンは毛糸の帽子がいいねと苦しいコメント）高級ブランド店に「質の違い」を確かめに行ったり、架空の会社の名刺持参で中国やバングラデシュの工場と交渉したり（取材拒否を想定して？）とかなりの強心臓の持ち主のようだ。２、３回着たらポイ（アメリカには救世軍というリサイクルがある）するファストファッションから離脱する方法として提案しているスローファッションについては、一部の意識の高い、時間的余裕のある層以外は無理ではないかと思う。著者は３０代前半のようだが、ミシンはおろか裁縫は家庭科で習わなかったという。このあたりの事情も（ボタンつけもできない）ポイ捨てOKのファストファッション隆盛の一因だと分析している。

The author brings to light some very important truths. As the consumer we have more power than ever before. Maybe it's time we harness this. If your after a light hearted yet serious discussion regarding the fashion industry this is the book for you. Be inspired till the last page.

GREAT book showing the ugly sides of 'fast fashion'. I really enjoyed the majority of this book - I was so excited I read it in one day. Fast fashion has really changed the way we think about clothing and what we wear - and it is not for the better. People are buying TONS of clothing that they don't wear and they can buy so much because it is SO CHEAP. It makes no sense. I really appreciated how she discussed what happens to donated clothing - because so many people think they're doing something good by donating the clothes they don't want. The truth is - so much is donated that is junk (too trendy, poorly made, ill-fitting) and a lot of it can't be re-sold, reused or recycled. For the most part, fast fashion is bad business that is wreaking havoc on the earth and humankind (a loaded statement, I know, but in many ways - its true!).

Achei muito bom ! Faz uma retrospectiva de como o consumo de roupas mudou nas últimas décadas.