I found this one at the library and was immedeatly grabbed by the cover- embroidered text! Getting into some textile crafts recently myself, I hoped this book would teach me about the history of the garmet industry, or get more in-depth on issues that face modern production of clothing vis a vis fast fashion and the labor that provides that.

It....did some of that.

Part of my frustrations with the read was the default assumptions for the reader: this idea that that fashion- high fashion- IS the lifeblood of society. Maybe I just wasn't the intended audience, but it felt as if the whole book was written for the stereotype of a cliquey high school 'cool girl' who only cares about clothes. If it wasn't for how the author presented this perspective as the default- I think I would have been less bothered by it- but the concepts were too insular at the start, and things got weirder from there.

The fashion-forward viewpoint was interspaced with much of the text getting into some serious problems that plauge the fashion industry- discussing sweatshop labor, sexual harrassment, workplaces closing to avoid paying employees- plus the ways that immigration status often compounds these issues. Also discussed were the problems faced by retail workers, such as how fashion giants like American Apparal legitimize sexual harassent towards employees with discriminatory hiring practices. The heavier portions of this book described situations that would be at home in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, but the banal tone that the author handled them with was jarring, to say the least.

But, even then, the prospective solutions were so... stupid?

"We can push (harmful fashion brands) on this publicly through posting on social media and asking them why they haven't been transparent about their process. We can also look to organizations like The Model Alliance, a nonprofit that educates people about gender and climate justice in fashion. We have to fight fire with fire. If Fabletics wants to be the brand that helps women be their best selves and markets their leggings as such, we should hold them to it publicly."

It just felt so odd- reading that, immedeatly after pages and pages of the struggles faced by workers, how legal loopholes allow for minimal labor protections of the garment makers as a whole... but we can look to the model alliance? We can post on social media about it?!?! It was like Hardy was reading into the problems faced by the people who make the clothes, but could only find relief agencies for those who wear them- and instead of noticing, wow, that's kind of fucked up- she just shelved them together as if making the modeling industry safer would somehow cancel out the troubles inflicted on the workers who made the outfit.

All this isn't to say that the "lesser" issues the author took grievance with aren't worth investigating- but it did strike me as odd that between issues of slavery sweatshop labor and certain clothes companies only hiring hot people, the author had a lot more to say about the second problem.

I wanted to enjoy this book, but the whole text felt so incredibly shallow- I gave up roughly 3/4ths of the way through, finishing the chapter where the author finally discusses what the workers want to see improved in the industry... couched in the context of how to prevent getting scammed by buying conterfit products, and ways that the industry can reduce the production of fakes.

Overall, I wouldn't reccomend this read, as it feels like the author's justification to herself for her time in the industry, and being dragged along into that reckoning is pointless when it doesn't really go anywhere of substance.

RETURN--->