Worn out How our clothes cover up fashion's sins

Hardy, a fashion editor who has worked at Teen Vogue and InStyle, has documented evolving fashion trends for decades. In this unsettling book, she urges readers to think about where all these trendy outfits come from and where they end up. She exposes filthy, unregulated sweatshops around the world where workers, including children, are forced to work backbreaking shifts (in one painfully ironic example, sewing COVID face masks without any health precautions) and documents the huge mounds of discarded clothing that end up in developing countries, often consigned to molder in warehouses for decades. She includes insightful fashion history along with the disturbing experiences of exploited women garment workers, including sexual harassment, imprisonment, and even death. Hardy isn't afraid to name names, either: brands, retailers, labels, executives, designers, influencers. Skewering empty pledges and PR campaigns that tout sustainability, inclusivity, and diversity, Hardy's writing is engaging; her frustration and urgency, infectious. She ends on a positive note, identifying activists and entrepreneurs who are making a difference. This eye-opening account will almost certainly give fashion consumers pause.

Journalist Hardy debuts with a scorching exposé of how the fashion industry "works to actively cover up and perpetuate climate change and labor injustice." With the rise of "fast fashion," Hardy explains, new styles are marketed to consumers several times a year, while old styles are consigned to landfills. She also documents rampant sexual harassment, low wages, and poor working conditions endured by garment workers, many of whom are immigrants with no power to complain; the environmental costs of toxic dyes and synthetic fabrics; and efforts to address the problems through unionization, consumer education, and activism. One of the book's most intriguing sections uses the case study of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers to analyze how celebrity marketers help companies distract consumers from "nefarious labor practices." Elsewhere, Hardy critiques companies for claiming that their products are organic or "environmentally friendly" when they're only "marginally sustainable," and discusses how subcontracting allows brands hide their dependence on sweatshop labor. Empathetic profiles of factory workers and others negatively impacted by the fashion industry bolster Hardy's call for policy changes to counter the abusive and misleading practices she outlines. This will have readers thinking twice before they make their next purchase. (Sept.)