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Quick recap: I assigned myself a summer reading book, Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, to help me learn more about ethical fashion. I’m jotting down some notes and thoughts as I read through it this month and sharing them here. Maybe it will inspire you in a new way too!
I’ve divided the book into four sections. (Find my notes on Part One here.) Part Two contains Chapters 3 and 4.
Chapter 3: High and Low Fashion Make Friends
Every season another mass-fashion retailer announces a buzzy new partnership with a famed designer…growing sales by drawing hysterical early morning queues and stampedes that clean out stores in the blink of an eye. (p.70)
Consumers once bought the best clothing they could for their money, which started with an intimate knowledge of fiber content. When clothes were more expensive and kept for years and worn year-round, we were naturally more invested in what they were made of. (p.83)
Notes and takeaways from this chapter:
- This chapter explored the vast difference between high-end fashion and their cheaper counterparts. The section on high-end designers and the way retailers like Target, H&M, and Gap have partnered with them to create fast fashion copycats was eye-opening. This quote was thought-provoking: “Where girls once would have paid at least some attention to the craftsmanship of the product, or even might have sat behind a sewing machine and created their own Missoni-inspired or Karl Lagerfeld look-alike, they can now line up passively to buy disposable versions of it.” (p.71)
- There are two types of man-made fibers, plastics and cellulosic:
- Cellulosic are fibers like viscose, rayon, Modal, and Tencel and are produced from naturally sourced by-products like cotton scraps and sawdust
- Plastics are fibers like polyester, acrylic and nylon
- As I read through this book, I’m reminded so much of my grandmother. She was a talented seamstress and would intensely inspect my clothing – what the fabric was, how the seams were sewn, how the lining in a skirt was connected. I’m so sad that I never sat down with her and had her explain the construction of a well-made piece of clothing.
Chapter 4: Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is a radical method of retailing that has broken away from seasonal selling and puts out new inventory constantly throughout the year. Fast-fashion merchandise is typically priced much lower than its competitors’…On it’s face, it makes little sense that selling so much attractive fashion for so little could be profitable. But in fact, it seems to be the only surefire way to make it in today’s retail scene: Fast-fashion retailers have more than twice the average profit margin of their more traditional competitors. (p.96)
- “Forever 21 is notorious for ripping off fashion designers. To date, the company has been sued more than 50 times for copyright violations. Yet it has never been found liable for copyright infringement.” (p.105) This is so sad. It reminds me of a few intellectual property violations I read about a few years ago:
- How A Company Gets Away With Stealing Independent Designers’ Work
- This Etsy Entrepreneur Claims Target Stole Her Trendy Tank Top Design
- A thought-provoking quote: “But what happens when the copycats in question are huge, billion-dollar companies that are gaining market share by the day? Forever 21 and Zara aren’t small Seventh Street manufacturers aping Parisian couturiers. And they aren’t just mimicking high-end designers few can afford. They’re corporations that are able to undercut virtually all of their competitors, whether it’s a high-end luxury label, an independent designer, or anything in between.” (p.110-111)
