Unraveled by Maxine Bedat

UNRAVELED by Maxine Bedat is subtitled “The Life and Death of a Garment” and Bedat uses nine chapters and a pair of jeans to discuss the various aspects of the clothing marketplace from growing cotton in Texas, through manufacturing (of both a textile and clothing), marketing, and distribution. She also includes chapters which cover purchasing decisions, disposal of used and donated clothing (Americans “throw out more than eighty pounds of textiles per person per year”) as well as offering suggestions for future action. I was originally curious about UNRAVELED because there has been a great deal of student interest in this topic recently, with several students completing Junior Themes related to fast fashion and sustainability in the last few years. I have since learned that Bedat is Director of the New Standard Institute, a research and action think tank. Her work has been covered in numerous publications including The New Yorker, Vogue, Fast Company, The Nation and so on. I plan to definitely purchase and recommend UNRAVELED as it covers a 2.5 trillion-dollar industry which impacts all of us; consider the many people Bedat consults: “agronomists, climate scientists, historians, fashion executives, factory executives, and material scientists; labor experts, organizers and laborers; political scientists, toxicologists, psychologists, marketers and economists.” UNRAVELED contains extensive notes and a helpful index; related texts include: Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas and The Conscious Closet by Elizabeth Cline.