Greenwich Library is pleased to present Date with an Author featuring bestselling author and veteran journalist Dana Thomas. Thomas discusses her 2019 book "Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes," which investigates the damage wrought by our massive clothing industry—and the grassroots, high-tech global movement fighting to reform it. Check out a copy of the book from the Library here: [ Ссылка ].

Each morning we wake up and ask ourselves a basic question: “What will I wear today?” In our era of “fast fashion”—with the worldwide clothing industry producing 80 billion new garments annually, and employing one out of six people on the globe—we are more likely than ever before to choose something brand new, low-priced, and made in a developing nation. But the cheap consumer price tag has an enormous cost on the environment and the economy—and it exploits laborers around the world.

The early chapters of ​"Fashionopolis​" shed light on the sobering realities of today’s“throwaway” fashion culture: how on average a garment is worn only seven times before getting tossed; why over 20 billion clothing items produced each year go unsold; how blue jeans—the most popular garment in the world, with six ​billion​​pairs produced annually—are also the most polluting in their manufacture; and the dramatic economic fallout over the past thirty years in the U.S. from offshoring clothing production that’s resulted in the loss of well over one million jobs, all while fashion has exploded from a $500-billion to a $2.4 trillion-a-year industry. Today’s consumers may have the option of purchasing a $20 pair of jeans, but ​Fashionopolis shows how the price of such fast fashion is far higher than the retail tag. Visiting the site of the RanaPlaza collapse in Bangladesh on the fifth anniversary of the catastrophe, Thomas illustrates the brutal burden resting on the laborers who produce these garments by working in hazardous factories and living below the poverty level. Thomas interviews independent designers who are also paying the price, as mass-market stores routinely steal their original design patterns. Most fundamental of all, Fashionopolis​ shows how the environment is suffering from the fashion industry—which accounts for at least 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of all industrial water pollution. Thomas details how these problems have grown exponentially over the last two decades, as online shopping veiled consumers from their clothes’ origins.

Dana Thomas ​is the author of "​Fashionopolis​," "​Gods and Kings," ​and the ​New York Times​ bestseller ​"Deluxe​." She began her career writing for the Style section of the ​Washington Post ​and served as a cultural and fashion correspondent for ​Newsweek ​in Paris. She is a regular contributor to the ​New York Times ​Style section and has written for the ​New York Times Magazine​, ​The New Yorker​, ​Wall Street Journal​, and The ​Financial Times​. She lives in Paris.

Learn more about the companies mentioned in this video:
Alabama Chanin – A small apparel company based in Florence, Alabama that utilizes a “seed-to-shelf” local supply chain – from fiber to garment – to manufacture its products. They use 100% organic cotton in their cotton pieces. [ Ссылка ]
Evrnu – Seattle-based textile innovator, which has engineered fibers created from discarded clothing. [ Ссылка ]
Stella McCartney – Daughter of Paul McCartney and top innovator in the luxury fashion space. Stella’s brand is named after herself. [ Ссылка ]
Remake – International community of Millienial and Gen Z people who advocate on social media and through educational events for living wages down the fashion supply chain and putting an end to fast fashion. [ Ссылка ]

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