Consumed – The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism, by Aja Barber. Balance, 2021
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing, by Sofi Thanhauser. Pantheon, 2022
How often do you think about the clothes you wear? Here on Gabriola Island, where no one bats an eye if you go shopping at Nester’s in your pajamas, it might seem that simply being covered is all that really matters. Style often plays second fiddle to comfort and practicality. In reality, the garment industry affects us all, as one of the largest players in the global manufacturing economy, as well as either fourth or seventh (depending on sources) most polluting. It is an industry founded on slave labour, and continues to be brutally exploitative. How we choose our clothing is indeed important, even if we aren’t concerned with fashion.
Three books have recently come across my desk that offer in-depth discussion of the importance of clothing to human existence, from the history of textile production to the impact of fast fashion. The first, Peggy Orenstein’s Unraveling:What I Learned about Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater is a very engaging personal account of Orenstein’s exploration of actually making a garment from scratch, accomplishing all the steps herself.
Started as a project to keep busy during COVID, with knitting as her only prior textile skill, Orenstein makes the most of being situated in Northern California, the heart of Fibershed country. (Founded in 2010 by Rebecca Burgess, Fibershed is a non-profit organization that develops regional fiber systems that build ecosystem and community health. https://fibershed.org ) She is able to connect to local shepherds, shearers, spinners and dyers who share their expertise with her. Orenstein has a lively, humourous story telling ability, which draws the reader in, while also conveying lots of more sobering information about the loss of local textile mills and the gutting of the North American garment manufacturing industry.
She does indeed learn how to shear a sheep, spin the fleece into yarn, dye the yarn with natural dyes gleaned from her own region, and knit it into a very wearable sweater. (I did correspond with Orenstein, congratulating her on the book, but chiding her a bit for overstating the sweater’s ugliness – she charmingly replied and admitted that she knew her sweater wasn’t the world’s ugliest, but she thought it made for a good title.) In a true test of the readability and mass appeal of Unraveling, I lent my copy to my partner, who usually prefers titles such as “The Book of Eels” or “Civilization and the Limpet”. He pronounced Unraveling to be a great read, very interesting and that he now understood a lot more about what I do with all those bits of fluff in the studio.
Consumed – The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism, by Aja Barber is a more militant call to action than the grassroots Fibershed approach. Barber, an American living in London manages to be both a fashion insider and a critic of the industry by sticking to strict ethical standards. She has a huge following on Instagram and has turned down some tantalizing offers from fashion houses and retailers who would like her to uncritically promote their product on her site. Barber is also a Black woman who brings a valuable perspective to her insights on the fashion industry, especially its colonial origins. I found the first part of the book to be full of information but somewhat repetitive, although due to Barber’s sassy, warm voice it isn’t annoyingly so.
The second half of Consumed is a toolkit for taking action: templates for letters to fast fashion CEO’s and lawmakers;checklists for breaking the cycle of consumption and waste; how to combat green-washing; making the most of what you already have; changing patterns of behaviour. Barber also includes a section of resources on how to educate yourself further. Overall, her approach is supportive, caring and strong – empowering in the best way.
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing goes deeply into the history of five main fibres from which fabric is made: cotton, linen, wool, silk and synthetic. Author Sofi Thanhauser delves into the heavy issues of social and environmental injustice, corrupt politics and unsustainable capitalism that surround the garment industry. She has done a lot of on-the-ground research, actually visiting clothing factories in Bangladesh and Honduras, and talking with workers, managers, middlemen, textile historians and professional craftspeople.
I took part in an on-line bookclub focussed on Worn, and we had plenty to talk about over 6 sessions. I was very glad for the community and support of the reading group, as the sheer magnitude of human suffering that is part of the textile industry was overwhelming at times. Fortunately for empathetic reader, the book does conclude on a more encouraging note with the revival of traditional practises and smaller-scale local fibre production promoted by groups such as Fibershed.
Returning to our pajama-clad Gabriola grocery shopper – they may be happy to know that there is a Vancouver Island Fibreshed group, which is working hard at developing markets and resources for local farmers and textile producers. And, in really exciting news, a small group of us have formed a Gabriola "pod" of the larger regional fibreshed, and we will be offering workshops on mending, dyeing, processing a fleece, making a spindle and learning to spin, through the Arts Council's Isle of the Arts festival this spring. Making educated choices about how we choose to clothe ourselves is getting easier, and is a way to create positive change in the world.
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