Fashionopolis, as you might expect, was eye-opening. Apart from talking about my book to everyone around me (probably annoying my taobao-loving friends and family), I also did a mini-reading binge and found these three books to be very helpful.

Fashionopolis: Read this for an introduction to the ethical and ecological problems facing fashion

Published just last September (September 2019), Fashionopolis is a hard-hitting look at the ethics of the fashion industry today. Sadly, although the costs of clothes come down, the negative externalities have not. The cheaper your clothes, the more likely they are to have been made in sweatshop conditions and often in environmentally unfriendly ways.

But there is hope: Dana Thomas also looks into the various people doing their best to change things. There are solutions, we just have to start implementing them.

Full Review

Overdressed: Read this if you need more confirmation that fast fashion is unsustainable.

Overdressed was written in 2012, but sadly, things have not improved since then. Elizabeth Cline draws on interviews with others and her own experience and combines that with a recent history of fashion to show us how fast fashion became a phenomenon and why it’s not great. It’s a pity that the book was published in 2012 because I would have loved to read about how Taobao impacted the fast fashion industry.

The book also pointed out the increasing cost of luxury brands and that happened with an increasing number of luxury brands and fast fashion collaborations. This makes the ‘real goods’ unattainable to all but the rich and simultaneously, has us rushing out to get the “cheaper” version of luxury that is produced unsustainably and with lesser quality materials.

Both Fashionopolis and Overdressed cover the same topics, but they felt very complementary. One emphasises the other, although due to the publishing dates, Fashionopolis is more current.

The Conscious Closet: Read this for practical advice on how to build and maintain a sustainable/ethical closet

If, after reading Fashionopolis and/or Overdressed, you feel the need to change the way you shop for clothes, I recommend reading The Conscious Closet. It’s a handbook for building an ethical wardrobe, covering the different ways to get clothes to methods of maintaining your clothes for longevity. There’s even advice on how you can resell clothes to help stretch your budget further.

The book is a little America-centric but the sections on washing and mending clothes are universal.

No matter which of these three books you read (though I recommend you read all three), your eyes will be opened to the impact of the fashion industry. For once, the next question is “what should I read next” but “how can I make my fashion consumption better?”