
Fashionopolis
The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes
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Narrated by:
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Dana Thomas
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By:
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Dana Thomas
About this listen
New York Times Book Review Paperback Row Selection
An investigation into the damage wrought by the colossal clothing industry and the grassroots, high-tech, international movement fighting to reform it....
What should I wear? It’s one of the fundamental questions we ask ourselves every day. More than ever, we are told it should be something new. Today, the clothing industry churns out 80 billion garments a year and employs every sixth person on Earth. Historically, the apparel trade has exploited labor, the environment, and intellectual property - and in the last three decades, with the simultaneous unfurling of fast fashion, globalization, and the tech revolution, those abuses have multiplied exponentially, primarily out of view. We are in dire need of an entirely new human-scale model. Best-selling journalist Dana Thomas has traveled the globe to discover the visionary designers and companies who are propelling the industry toward that more positive future by reclaiming traditional craft and launching cutting-edge sustainable technologies to produce better fashion.
In Fashionopolis, Thomas sees renewal in a host of developments, including printing 3-D clothes, clean denim processing, smart manufacturing, hyperlocalism, fabric recycling - even lab-grown materials. From small-town makers and Silicon Valley whizzes to such household names as Stella McCartney, Levi’s, and Rent the Runway, Thomas highlights the companies big and small that are leading the crusade.
We all have been casual about our clothes. It's time to get dressed with intention. Fashionopolis is the first comprehensive look at how to start.
©2019 Dana Thomas (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“A glimpse into how consumerism, slowed to a less ferocious pace, might be reconciled with sustainability.” (The New Yorker)
"[A] Marley's Ghost-style warning of the irrevocable destructions to come.... Thomas is engaging and vital." (New York Review of Books)
“If you’ve been paying any sort of attention, you know that fashion is a dirty business. Human rights abuses, environmental devastation, economic devastation - these are just the broad strokes of a deeply broken system. And Fashionopolis seeks to pull the curtain back on that system. But it also wants to show us a way out.” (Esquire)
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- By: Carolyn Mair
- Narrated by: Susan Osman
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Psychology of Fashion offers an insightful introduction to the exciting and dynamic world of fashion in relation to human behaviour, from how clothing can affect our cognitive processes to the way retail environments manipulate consumer behaviour. The book explores how fashion design can impact healthy body image, how psychology can inform a more sustainable perspective on the production and disposal of clothing, and why we develop certain shopping behaviours.
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By: Carolyn Mair
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- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
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Overall
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In February 2011 John Galliano, the lauded head of Christian Dior, imploded with a drunken, anti-Semitic public tirade. Exactly a year earlier, celebrated designer Alexander McQueen took his own life three weeks before his women's wear show. Both were casualties of the war between art and commerce that has raged within fashion for the last two decades.
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-
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- By Susan on 01-28-22
By: Sofi Thanhauser
-
Overdressed
- The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion
- By: Elizabeth L. Cline
- Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cheap fashion has fundamentally changed the way most Americans dress. Stores ranging from discounters like Target to fast fashion chains like H&M now offer the newest trends at unprecedentedly low prices. Retailers are producing clothes at enormous volumes in order to drive prices down and profits up, and they've turned clothing into a disposable good.
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Story
Look closely at any typically "American" article of clothing these days, and you may be surprised to see a Japanese label inside. From high-end denim to oxford button-downs, Japanese designers have taken the classic American look - known as ametora, or "American traditional" - and turned it into a huge business for companies like Uniqlo, Kamakura Shirts, Evisu, and Kapital. This phenomenon is part of a long dialogue between Japanese and American fashion.
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You must read for anyone interested in Japanese and American style
- By Spencer Jackson on 01-23-22
By: W. David Marx
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The Conscious Closet
- The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good
- By: Elizabeth L. Cline
- Narrated by: Elizabeth L. Cline
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In her landmark investigation Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, Elizabeth L. Cline first revealed fast fashion’s hidden toll on the environment, garment workers, and even our own satisfaction with our clothes. The Conscious Closet shows exactly what we can do about it. Whether your goal is to build an effortless capsule wardrobe, keep up with trends without harming the environment, buy better quality, seek out ethical brands, or all of the above, The Conscious Closet is packed with the vital tools you need.
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EXCELLENT
- By NCR on 04-20-20
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The Kingdom of Prep
- The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J.Crew
- By: Maggie Bullock
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Once upon a time, a no-frills J.Crew rollneck sweater held an almost mystical power—or at least it felt that way. The story of J.Crew is the story of the original “lifestyle brand,” whose evolution charts a sea change in the way we dress, the way we shop, and who we aspire to be over the past four decades—all told through iconic clothes and the most riveting characters imaginable.
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FANtastic Read!
- By Hello World on 08-16-23
By: Maggie Bullock
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Wear It Well
- Reclaim Your Closet and Rediscover the Joy of Getting Dressed
- By: Allison Bornstein
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Personal stylist Allison Bornstein has mastered the art of helping people look good and feel good. In Wear It Well, she shares her philosophy and outlines systems that will bring your style into alignment and create a wardrobe that delights your spirit.
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Disliked Narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 04-03-24
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American Flannel
- How a Band of Entrepreneurs Are Bringing the Art and Business of Making Clothes Back Home
- By: Steven Kurutz
- Narrated by: Shawn K. Jain
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The little-engine-that-could story of how a band of scrappy entrepreneurs are reviving the enterprise of manufacturing clothing in the United States.
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Eye opening regarding the state of American manufacturing - not just the textile industry.
- By mom knows best on 05-06-24
By: Steven Kurutz
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Empresses of Seventh Avenue
- World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion
- By: Nancy MacDonell
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Empresses of Seventh Avenue will tell the story of how these extraordinary women put American fashion on the world stage and created the template for modern style—and how the nearly $500 billion American fashion industry, the largest in the world, could not have accrued its power and wealth without their farsightedness and determination.
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Rich history, well told
- By Water79 on 05-30-25
By: Nancy MacDonell
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Fabric
- The Hidden History of the Material World
- By: Victoria Finlay
- Narrated by: Carla Kissane
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In Fabric, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it.
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Perfect Book for Needleworking
- By LaVonne on 11-18-23
By: Victoria Finlay
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Fashionopolis (Young Readers Edition)
- The Secrets Behind the Clothes We Wear
- By: Dana Thomas
- Narrated by: Dana Thomas
- Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Did you ever think about where your jeans come from? How about the people who made your T-shirt, or what happens to the clothes you grow out of when you're done wearing them? The fabrics clothes are made of, the way they are designed and sewn and shipped around the world, and the way we consume them and get rid of them - every step in this process has a big impact on our environment, on the people who work in clothing factories, and on our cultures.
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Perfect for newbies to Fashion world!
- By LDJ on 04-08-22
By: Dana Thomas
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The Chiffon Trenches
- A Memoir
- By: André Leon Talley
- Narrated by: André Leon Talley
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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During André Leon Talley’s first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies.
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Another case of author's narration not working.
- By CB on 05-21-20
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When Women Ran Fifth Avenue
- Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion
- By: Julie Satow
- Narrated by: Karen Murray
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The twentieth century American department store: a palace of consumption where every wish could be met under one roof – afternoon tea, a stroll through the latest fashions, a wedding (or funeral) planned. It was a place where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Whether in New York or Chicago or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled.
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Read like a text book for fashion students.
- By JACKI on 06-24-24
By: Julie Satow
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The Golden Thread
- How Fabric Changed History
- By: Kassia St. Clair
- Narrated by: Helen Johns
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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From colorful 30,000-year-old threads found on the floor of a Georgian cave to the Indian calicoes that sparked the Industrial Revolution, The Golden Thread weaves an illuminating story of human ingenuity. Design journalist Kassia St. Clair guides us through the technological advancements and cultural customs that would redefine human civilization - from the fabric that allowed mankind to achieve extraordinary things (traverse the oceans and shatter athletic records) and survive in unlikely places (outer space and the South Pole).
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Excellent for those interested in textiles
- By Adeliese Baumann on 12-14-19
By: Kassia St. Clair
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The House of Gucci
- A True Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed
- By: Sara Gay Forden
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Sara Gay Forden
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of March 27, 1995, four quick shots cracked through Milan’s elegant streets. Maurizio Gucci, heir to the fabulous fashion dynasty, had been ambushed, slain on the steps to his office by an unknown gunman. Two years later, Milan’s chief of police entered the sumptuous palazzo of Maurizio’s ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani - nicknamed “the Black Widow” by the press - and arrested her for the murder. Did Patrizia kill her ex-husband because his spending was wildly out of control? Or is it possible Patrizia didn’t do it at all?
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Just read the cliff notes or wait for the movie.
- By Sunny White on 04-10-21
By: Sara Gay Forden
Eye Opening Insight to Fashion
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Everyone whp wears clothes must read
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Very informative and optimistic
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A must-read on sustainability for fashion!
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Everyone who purchases clothes should read this book
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Fantastic!
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Wonderful Book and eye opening
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Brilliantly told, current and worth reading
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I feel better/energized after this listen. Also, the author did a good job reading.
My only discomfort was that when French words are pronounced in French, I can get lost. It’s part of the history of fashion, but it’s hard on lay people who studied other languages (or perhaps only their own).
Enlightening, fascinating, hopeful despite current imperfections in the clothing biz
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Great book!
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