By Cynthia Cobb
Thank you to DD Hilke for introducing this topic to me. Since then I did some research and found these books discussing the high cost of clothing at the library.
Elizabeth Cline’s first book was Overdressed, The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. In The Conscious Closet she writes “Overdressed was one of the first investigations to draw a straight line between our increasing consumption of fashion and the critical problems of climate change, pollution, and poor working conditions. Driving it all was the meteoritic rise of “fast fashion,” a hyper-accelerated cycle of making, consuming, and trashing clothes that is wrecking our environment and keeping workers locked in poverty.”
Elizabeth Cline’s second book, The Conscious Closet, the Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good while Doing Good, she writes, “If you want to change the world, there’s no better place to start than with the clothes on your back, and the shoes on your feet.” The clothing industry is “among the world’s largest emitters, water polluters, and users of toxic chemicals. As much as 8% of carbon emissions are caused by fashion. A third of microplastic pollution junking up our oceans is coming from what we wear. A garbage truck’s worth of unwanted fashion is landfilled in the United States every two minutes. And in an industry that makes some people so fantastically rich and famous, there are somehow only a handful of garment workers earning a living wage anywhere.”
These books offer lots of ideas for changing your relationship with clothing by reducing social and environmental impacts from clothing purchases. Consider applying the 5 R’s to your clothing buying choices; Refuse, Reduce, Repair, Repurpose, and Recycle.
King County Repair Clinics are offering a repair event in Woodinville on July 22 where they will be offering repairs to clothing and textiles, and small household and personal items including some electronics. For more info on the Repair Clinics Program or to sign up for this event see: