Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion Author: Elizabeth L. Cline | Language: English | ISBN:
B005GSZJ3Y | Format: PDF
Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion Description
“Overdressed does for T-shirts and leggings what Fast FoodNation did for burgers and fries.”—Katha Pollitt Cheap fashion has fundamentally changed the way most Americans dress. Stores ranging from discounters like Target to traditional chains like JCPenny now offer the newest trends at unprecedentedly low prices. And we have little reason to keep wearing and repairing the clothes we already own when styles change so fast and it’s cheaper to just buy more.
Cline sets out to uncover the true nature of the cheap fashion juggernaut. What are we doing with all these cheap clothes? And more important, what are they doing to us, our society, our environment, and our economic well-being?
- File Size: 799 KB
- Print Length: 267 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1591846544
- Publisher: Portfolio; Reprint edition (June 14, 2012)
- Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B005GSZJ3Y
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,088 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Economics > Environmental Economics - #33
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Consumer Behavior - #95
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Popular Culture
- #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Economics > Environmental Economics - #33
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Consumer Behavior - #95
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Popular Culture
I had the same sense of revulsion reading this book as I did reading "Supersize Me" (which is more or less the food version of this book) and I see fast food and "fast fashion" as indicative of the same lack of basic skills. We don't typically cook -- and therefore don't recognize quality in food. Few people sew anymore, and therefore don't recognize quality in clothing. The high cost of housing means that cost becomes more important both for food and clothing -- and quality suffers. The manufacturing chain makes adjustments to accommodate the desire for more of everything. And then follow the TV shows: Biggest Loser for the food problem; and Hoarders for the clothing (and everything else) problem.
Oddly enough, the bad construction of cheap clothes puts consumers into the endless cycle of buying more of everything. If you can't fix your shoes or alter your clothes, then you need multiples of everything just to make sure something lasts through the season. Expectations of grooming and dress have become demanding, which means that there is more acceptance of cheap clothing. 60 years ago when every working woman wore a suit every day to work, her entire wardrobe was different. She didn't have 22 tops and 14 skirts -- she had five suits. And yet we see the connection between clothing and our behavior-- schools that expect specific behaviors usually have specific dress codes. (the author of Supersize Me also comments on how fast food -- and eating in your car -- disrupted the idea of set meal times. )
I am old enough to remember the grand department stores in big cities -- and the expectations both of dress and behavior that accompanied them.
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