When exactly did one’s clothing, even though not necessarily one’s favorite item, but of mediocre quality for the price asked, become so popular in the world? 

The first half of this book, mentioning a number of  brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, and H&M, introduces the mechanism of the American apparel industry that has been dominated by fast fashion. 

The reports of visits to apparel factories in Bangladesh and China are interesting, but the latter half of the book is the best part that describes how the author’s thinking has changed from “I want to avoid exploitation, but cannot resist the inexpensiveness.” As to how she broke away from the “depression in the closet,” please read the book and find out! 

In the afterword, she says that she wrote not only about fast fashion, ie clothing, but also about the general societal tendency to prefer anything to be “faster and cheaper”. She also writes that the distance between producers and consumers is one of the causes of the exploitation. Rethinking the issue of exploitation, I realized that as we take time to imagine who is actually making our clothing and how it connects people, we discover a key to eradicating modern day slavery. (Nozomi Kuriyama)

(Written by Elizabeth L. Cline,  Published in 2012 by Portfolio, 244p, $12.00 (paperback), https://www.elizabethclinebooks.com/overdressed)