Building a Conscious Closet: Three Books for Your Personal Fashion Revolution
by Jenny Auld
Well, it finally happened. A few weeks ago, after two years of shambling contentedly around in pandemic sweats, I got sick of it. I began to yearn for actual clothes again. As in outfits. I saw the phrase “sweatpant fatigue” somewhere and thought: yes. Exactly. I’d almost forgotten how much I love clothes.
Sometimes, to fall asleep at night, I think back to specific articles of clothing I had in my twenties. I have relocated a lot, sometimes to different countries, and I’m not really a pack rat, so these items are long lost by now. Instead of counting sheep, it’s a line of fondly-remembered dresses, shoes, trousers, and skirts that queue up to jump over the wall.
But now I’m just pondering what to wear that doesn’t have an elasticized waistband. I find myself wanting — on some level — to be seen again, but also thinking increasingly about the impact of my clothes, then and now, on the planet. Having lived through the past couple of pandemic years, many of us have noted changes in our priorities. It seems that thinking about our clothes in a deeper way is part of that.
That’s why today we’re highlighting three books from Legible’s current carousel of books called “Build a Conscious Closet” (find it here in Canada and here in the US) to help us all do just that!
Circular Fashion, by Peggy Blum. Circular Fashion is an eminently readable analysis of the social and environmental impact of every aspect of the textile and clothing industry. Blum provides a historical overview of the industrialization of textile production, the rise of the department store, and the development of synthetic fabrics, all of which have resulted in the unsustainable situation we now face. She assesses the damage caused by the current, linear system and makes a robust proposal for one that imitates the circularity of nature, in which nothing is wasted.
There is a stunning depth of research in Circular Fashion and some fun discoveries along the way as well. Because of this book I started to follow innovative designers like Marine Serre and “Zero Waste Daniel,” aka Daniel Silverberg, who create one-of-a-kind, beautiful clothing from off-cut scraps generated by the fashion industry in their respective cities of Paris and New York.
Being of a nerdy bent, I really enjoyed the section that lists all of the conventional materials used for clothing production and unpacks their pros and cons, as well as the fascinating discussion of innovative materials (like those made from potato peels, mushrooms, oranges, and pineapples), and forward-looking, sustainable processes like green chemistry and digital finishing.
Wardrobe Crisis, by Clare Press. Wardrobe Crisis takes us along on a journey, effortlessly weaving together back-stories of designers, amusing personal anecdotes, and solid facts and figures about the fashion industry. Clare Press is a witty, conversational writer whose love of the subject lights up every page. Her short profiles of iconic designers are full of lively details that put the reader inside the story. Christian Dior, for example, apparently wanted to be a composer before he gave up the music dream and opened a gallery exhibiting Max Ernst, Paul Klee, and Salvador Dali — not too shabby — before embarking on his fashion design career in middle age, out of financial necessity. Press’s range is impressive. She unpacks the phenomenon of shopping addiction, gives us the origin story of the Birkin bag, serves up a technical definition of couture (a very misunderstood word, as it turns out), and distills the present-day company structure of luxury multibrand Kering, which now owns Balenciaga, Gucci, and YSL, among many other brands, and has become an industry leader sustainable practices and transparency.
How to Break Up With Fast Fashion, by Lauren Bravo. This is a very fun book with an important message and heaps of helpful advice. Bravo anchors the book in the psychological phenomenon of habituation — in which we breed a sort of contempt for the familiar and seek dopamine from that which is new, new, new. This is why we ignore what’s already in our closets, Bravo explains, and go hunting for more clothes, only for those to become the things we ignore in our closets, and so on, endlessly. She makes the connection between this very human trait and the way it fuels the globally devastating fast fashion market. With a bubbling wit and effortlessly great writing, Bravo prescribes a number of ways that we can break the cycle and become content. She makes the case that, even as we pile up new things to become happy, that doesn’t really do it.
Change, like spring, is in the air. It’s time to tune in to this beautiful planet and its people, and be part of a personal fashion revolution. Let’s jump out of those sweats and into a happier, more peaceful, more just and sustainable future of clothes.
