Elizabeth L. Cline's Blog

In a recent episode of the podcast NothingWasted!, author Elizabeth L. Cline speaks about the textile-waste problem; innovations that are helping make fashion more sustainable; shifting attitudes of consumers, and more!

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Liz Bothwell: Hi everyone, welcome to Waste360's Nothing Wasted Podcast. On every episode, we invite the most interesting people in waste recycling and organics to sit down with us and chat candidly about their thoughts, their work, this unique industry and so much more. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode.

[music]

[00:00:26] Liz: Hi, everyone, this is Liz Bothwell, from Waste360 with Elizabeth Cline. She's an author, journalist, expert on consumer culture, fast fashion, sustainability, and labor rights. Welcome, Elizabeth, thanks for being on the show today.

[00:00:41] Elizabeth Cline: Hi, Liz. It is so great to be here, I am excited to dig into the world of waste with you.

[00:00:47] Liz: Excellent. Could you start by introducing yourself, and telling us more about what fueled your passion for sustainability?

[00:00:54] Elizabeth: Sure. I am a journalist and the author of two books. The first, came out in 2012, it's called Overdress: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Then, this past year, in august of 2019, I put out a book called, The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good. Both books are about the global apparel industry, the hidden and unexpected impacts that our clothing choices have on the world around us, including impacts on the environment.

I've been writing about this subject for almost a decade, we can dig into a little bit more about what took me there, if you'd like me to go explain how I had my eureka moment and decided to start writing about this.

[00:01:52] Liz: I would love that.

[00:01:53] Elizabeth: [laughs] It's an embarrassing story. Prior, to writing Overdress, I was not writing about the fashion industry, I was working as a journalist, mostly, writing about culture, arts, music, and nightlife. I became a shopaholic, I amassed over 350 items of clothing. All of it was very cheap, I was very into going into discount, and fast fashion stores, like Forever 21, Old Navy or just going to the clearance aisle of any store.

It was like cheap shopping became a sport to me. It was ironic, because I was a very conscious consumer in other aspects of my life, I try to eat organic, eat local, and recycle, I do all the things. But then, with clothing, I just didn't have that same reflection.

I noticed that, pretty much, everybody around me was shopping this same way, maybe not as extreme, but had started really buying a lot more clothes and buying clothes very cheaply. I was like, "Okay. There's a book in this because something clearly, fundamentally, has changed in the clothing industry that is making this possible." That is how I got the idea for Overdressed, it was out of my own tumble into the world of cheap binge shopping for clothes. [laughs]

[00:03:33] Liz: [laughs] That's normally how it happens. Then, that really becomes real and you can write in a concrete way about it.

[00:03:41] Elizabeth: What is so interesting to me in the apparel industry, in particular, is that the supply chain for clothes is so long and so complicated, that I ended up going to Bangladesh, China, Dominican Republic, all over the American South, and out to the West Coast. It took a lot of on the ground reporting to even piece together the story of what we wear.

As consumers, we’re so disconnected from that story. It's a hard and complicated story to tell, but I think it's a worthy one. People want to know where their things come from. Since, I know, we're going to be talking about waste as well, people are also increasingly curious about where their stuff goes, once they get rid of it as well.

[00:04:33] Liz: Absolutely. Your book, Overdressed really was the first piece of work that revealed the impacts of fast fashion. Were you surprised by the impact that that book had?

[00:04:45] Elizabeth: Unfortunately, the reason why Overdressed had the impact that it had is because of the Rana Plaza factory collapse that came out less than one year, after the book's release. Overdress came out in a way before its time, no one was ready to hear that message, it took the collapse of a factory in Bangladesh, that killed almost 1200 people and injured thousands of others. It was a garment factory that made clothes for popular western clothing brands, that was the wake-up call.

Then, people were like, "Maybe, we should listen to what this lady is saying about fast fashion because, clearly, there are all sorts of impacts associated with the way we've decided to set up our clothing industry. Let's start having a conversation about that, and then, let's start talking about how we can reform the industry for better".

[00:05:52] Liz: Absolutely. You wrote that book-- it came out in 2012, right?

[00:05:57] Elizabeth: Yes.

[00:05:58] Liz: Have you seen a shift in consumption habits, interest around fashion, and wanting to offset the environmental impacts of it since then?

[00:06:08] Elizabeth: Yes, absolutely. I would say that just in the last two to three years, there's been a sea change in consumer interest and clamoring for sustainability in the fashion industry, it is a global movement. In 2019, in particular, that was a really big turning point, where you saw almost, virtually, every major brand, clothing company, and retailer, making significant commitments to sustainability, whether it was Uniqlo saying that it would eliminate single-use plastics, like plastic bags, from its stores. To H&M and Zara, two of the biggest fast-fashion players, saying that they're going to source, "Sustainable materials for all of their clothes by 2025." The industry was also setting science-based targets to reduce their carbon emissions, all of that happened in a very short period of time. Last year, there was so much momentum.

Of course, the question now is, what is going to happen to the sustainable fashion movement? In light of coronavirus, brands are in financial crisis, but at the same time, I think that consumers are realizing more than ever that we have more than enough, we want to rethink how we're living. It's going to be interesting to see where the conversation heads coming out of this pandemic.

[00:07:46] Liz: It definitely will, on the brand side, and also- we'll get into this with your new book, but what do you think will happen with all the secondhand clothing coming out of this pandemic? I keep reading about goodwill, and other donation centers, being overrun by donations, even, when their doors are closed.

[00:08:03] Elizabeth: I think that that's a really interesting question. I also heard that the folks that run thredUP, which is the largest online thrift store, their distribution centers are in their warehouses where they accept clean out kits, and clothes to be sold on their website. They're running at half capacity, they don't have as many people in their warehouses, but people are cleaning out, they're being just a huge surge in donations.

Last I heard, there were a lot of changes happening in the supply chain to use clothing as well, where certain countries in East Africa have halted the flow, the import of used clothes. I think that there's a lot of things happening in the clothing, both new clothing, and second-hand clothing, supply chains, that we all need to pay attention to and explore. I think, for me, I would say it's too early, I don't know what's going to come out of this, but I would be curious to know what you think.

[00:09:15] Liz: It's a huge question. I think there are going to be changes to the supply chain. At this point, I think it's a wait and see approach, because I think the momentum was in favor of building more sustainability. But to your point earlier, I also think that once we come out of this, consciousness will be higher, consumers are going to demand that brands change, and that they do offer other sustainable solutions. If we're just talking about that, I think we will keep going down the road of a more sustainable future where fashion is concerning, where brands are concerned.

On the second-hand side, I think it's probably- for now as consumers and as people, yes we want to clean out but maybe we can keep those bags in our garages for now. Short term, to just not overwhelm and just make sure that they get to where they need to go instead of the landfill, because if there isn't anyone to receive them, that's where it's going to end up. Obviously, that's not what we want, that wasn't our intent in cleaning out and donating.

[00:10:30] Elizabeth: Yes, a lot of my advocacy since The Conscious Closet has been around this idea of a mindful or conscious closet clean-out and trying to educate consumers about where their clothes go after they drop them off at the charity or take them to a clothing donation bin in their community, or even to an in-store program run by companies like The North Face or H&M.

That story it's hard, it's a complicated one to tell to consumers but it's important because, otherwise, you get these situations where people are just thinking about getting stuff out of their house, and they're not thinking about the fact that everything is closed down.

Where is it that people imagine this stuff is going to go? The charity shops have been closed for weeks, I'm assuming their warehouses are closed as well. I think that's one of the things, that we don't think a lot about garbage. That level of awareness is starting to shift, but I think it just points out that we have more work to do, we have more storytelling to do so that the public understands that there is this huge industry full of millions of people around the world who manage our garbage and make sure that it doesn't ultimately go into the landfill and if it has a second life, and has a second life that it gets to the place that it needs to go. I do think that we have more work to do around that area, clearly.

[00:12:14] Liz: Absolutely. As you know, clothing is one of the fastest-growing categories of waste to the landfills. I read that one garbage truck of clothing is dumped every two minutes in the US. Is that what you've read? Because I know you're doing research as well.

[00:12:30] Elizabeth: Yes, that statistic is actually from The Conscious Closet, and based on me just looking at the figures that the EPA puts out and putting it into more concise terms. Yes, you're absolutely right, it is one of the fastest-growing categories waste to landfill. I think evidence of a need to change keeps changing the industry. For so long charities have played the role of waste management for textiles, and clearly that is not a total solution anymore, there's just too much clothing waste.

I think that's why it's so important that the resale economy has cropped up and you've got these apps, like Poshmark, Indie-Pop that have made it so much easier for people to whop and sell their used clothes, because it just gives them a way to keep clothes out of the landfill and also shop sustainably. I feel prior to coronavirus we were coming up with some really interesting solution to this problem of textile waste, and hopefully, we'll get to pick up more or less where we were before it started and keep going with it.

[00:13:47] Liz: I hope so too. Speaking of some of the brands that are producing clothing from recycled content, I know you were talking about the second-hand market, but the folks that make clothing out of recycled bottles, is that a sustainable model? It's that the right model or is it a combination? Because they're still pushing people to acquire new things, but they're trying to do it with the most sustainable materials that they can think of.

[00:14:13] Elizabeth: Right. It's a great question and it's a very difficult question to answer. One of the challenges for the fashion industry -and we've really seen this because of the pandemic- most brands retailers do not own their factories. They are changing the parts of the process that they have control over, which is the design of the product and, potentially, the end of life, so they're recycling, they can have a take-back program or recycling program in their store.

I think that that's part of why we're seeing brand with so much emphasis on fibers and materials because, it's a lot more challenging to work with your suppliers to curb carbon emissions, change the type of energy they're using, change the amount of water they're using because brands they benefit, they profit from the fact that they don't own their factories and they only have so much influence and control over that supplier base at this point.

There's also the kind of bigger question that all companies in our economy, they want to be growing, all they're thinking about right now is how can we get back to growth? How can we open more stores? How can we sell more units? Almost all the companies in the fashion industry operate on a volume basis now, including luxury brands. The game is to make something as cheaply as possible and hopefully sell it at full price, just make a ton of stuff. It's an obvious point, but in what universe does that line up with the ecosystem and the ecology of planet Earth, which is finite? It's complicated.

[laughter]

[00:16:34] Liz: What I love is your optimism about tackling it because, it is complicated, and like you said in the beginning, the supply chain is complicated. You've got such awareness to it already, we appreciate that.

Getting back to the waste and recycling industry, can you see a way for us to be more integrated with a circular model? Is there a way to create a better system? Can technology help? I know that's a big question [laughs].

[00:17:07] Elizabeth: Yes, let's see if we can break that down. I think one thing is that I see clothing brands and retailers developing, "Circular strategies" that are very out of touch with how the second-hand industry actually works. I'm going to try and think of an example of that. For one thing, everybody in the world of waste knows that reuse is the best use. If anything can have a second life, that's what you want to see. But I feel what I'm seeing is brands running take-back programs on products that could have a second life, and they're recycling them instead.

Part of that is because they don't want products to have a second life, they want people to be buying new things. That's, I guess, the cynical perspective on it. But then I think it's also because brands and waste experts don't have conversations, there's has to be more integration between people designing sustainable systems on the brand side and people in the world of waste. Otherwise, you're going to keep getting these very distorted ideas of how circularity is going to work.

What I would want to see is, anytime I'm invited to a waste conference, anything to do with second-hand clothes, there's have to be brands and retailers there, that conversation needs to be happening more. I'm really interested in some other recycling innovations that are coming up, like the True Chemical textile to textile recycling innovations, I think they're going to be pretty game-changing.

[00:18:53] Liz: I think so too. Even I'm seeing with robotics there might be AI, there might be a way to use that with textile recycling as well. I'm curious to watch how that helps.

[00:19:06] Elizabeth: Yes, I'm of two minds about the automation stuff. On the one hand, it's going to make it easier to repurpose and recycle materials because machines can do huge very precise sorts. Say you're a retailer and you want to do an upcycled line of emo pants and put patches on them or something. A machine could go through millions of pounds of clothes and sort out everything that you need to make that possible. Obviously, if that if you were using human labor to do that, it would be very expensive. But then, on the other hand, there are a lot of people whose livelihoods depend on the second-hand industry.

I also want to make sure that people across the second-hand supply chain benefit from innovation in particular. There are millions of people that work in the secondhand industry in East Africa, and I've done a lot of research in Kenya about that industry. I also have some colleagues that work for [unintelligible 00:20:13]foundation and they do research in Ghana. We're always talking to the second-hand dealers and being like, "How can these technological innovations benefit your community too?"

That could include having textile recycling facilities in these markets, in the places where stuff, ultimately, ends up after it's gone through every single phase of trying to find a second home, it ends up in East Africa. What would textile recycling technology do for those communities? I think it's also really important and an interesting conversation to have.

[00:20:49] Liz: Definitely. Elizabeth, I do want to talk about your new book Conscious Closet, it's fantastic. For people who haven't read it yet, it's getting great reviews from Real Simple to Publishers Weekly. What I loved about it is that you can make it work, you can show people that they can have a conscious closet without having to spend a fortune. It really can appeal to the masses and show people that, every day, they can make a conscious effort to improve their footprint. Can you talk a little bit about what inspired you to write the book and what you cover within the book?

[00:21:27] Elizabeth: It is actually my experience in the secondhand clothing industry that inspired The Conscious Closet. I was filming this documentary, that maybe one day I'll finish, about secondhand clothes. That took me to Nairobi, Kenya. Then I was also working part-time at a used clothing facility in Brooklyn called Wearable Collections, so I was just around used clothes all the time. There's so much clothing waste in the world, it is staggering, it is mind-blowing, mind-boggling how much unwanted clothing there is.

What that made me realize was when these kinds of approaches to sustainability that say you have to buy an organic cotton dress or recycled polyester jacket, that that it's sustainability, that doesn't really square up with what I was seeing in the secondhand trade, because if you buy that dress, wear it twice and throw it away, that's not sustainable. We have to have a much more holistic, inclusive, inviting, friendly approach to sustainability.

That's why The Conscious Closet takes readers through the closet clean-out. How do you do that more mindfully? How to wash your clothes more sustainably, how to repair and care for your clothes more sustainably, how to curate the clothes that you've got so you wear them more, and then, shopping it's just one small piece of that puzzle.

It's a book about the whole lifecycle of our clothing and about our entire relationship to our clothes, because that relationship extends much further than the cash register at the store. It is encompassing our everyday life. I wanted to show people how in all of these different touchpoints with your clothes and different moments in your relationship with your clothes, you can make a more sustainable choice.

[00:23:46] Liz: Absolutely, I love that. If you could share a couple of secrets in looking through your closet, donating mindfully and caring for your things mindfully. Can you share a couple of secrets that won't give it all away, but at least will help people that are listening now?

[00:24:06] Elizabeth: Totally. The book -it sounds like you've checked it out- it's packed with information, so I'm happy to give away some of the information in it. One of the biggest things, since we're talking about textile waste so much, is a lot of people don't realize that there's textile recycling, that there can be a future for even worn-out clothes. I start by simply telling people, "If something's broken, even that doesn't mean that it needs to go in the trash." Of course, I walk people through how to do basic repairs, a lot of people are like, "I can't, it's too overwhelming", but, in the book, I make it very easy and I know that people can do this stuff. It's also really fun and satisfying.

From there, I walk people through how to make sure your clothes don't end up in the trash. Liz, what you and I know, but a lot of consumers don't realize is that many charities in our communities double as textile recyclers, they often partner with other companies that will take the clothes away, sort through them, and if they're damaged, maybe they'll get shredded, and turn it into isulation or maybe they'll be turned into wiping rags. There are things that can be done with these clothes.

The other thing is, because the second-hand industry is global, it could be that something that you think is worn out is not worn out to someone else, that they would be happy to wear it. The first thing that I do is, one, try to explain to people what really happens to you used clothes, what does that story look like, and to show them that there is a vast array of afterlives that our clothes can have. Again, this goes back to our initial conversation, the book starts with how to be more sustainable about how you clean out your closet. It's very anti-Marie Kondo, they're like, "Just purge it, throw it out and don't think about what happens next" [laughs]. 

[00:26:21] Liz: So true [laughs]. You also make it clear that you can do this, but you can still be stylish and you don't have to sacrifice that side of things. Because I think we have a whole generation of people who are coming up who want to walk the walk and talk to talk, but they want to make sure that they are building wardrobes that are more conscious. Because, like you said earlier, you were living a life where you were eating organic food and being very mindful about waste. It's refreshing to see you bring this to the forefront because I do think there is a generation of environmentalists looking for solutions.

[00:26:59] Elizabeth: Yes, I think gen Z in particular. They grew up in a world of fast fashion and social media where trends are changing very quickly, fashion is really important to them, but so is sustainability. They're the generation that won't accept trade-off, they truly want it all. That's why I think companies and solutions that provide that to them are successful.

That's one of the reasons why the resale market is booming, is because of Gen Z. It allows them to rotate their closet, look trendy, keep up with fashion, look unique and also be sustainable. Personally, I was not a fashion plate, I was not stylish at all when I was a fast fashion addict. I think being conscious about clothing requires you to, one, admit that clothing matters, that it's important to us on a personal level, it's an important industry, it's important in the world.

I have found that almost everyone I've ever met who decides to be more conscious about how they buy their clothes and how they build a wardrobe, also sees benefits in their style. They find that personal style and that sense of personal expression that feels true to them, and that is often the best defense against wanting to just binge shop something because it's 75% off. It's that little bit of a barrier or armor that makes you say, "You know what? I already have enough", or, "I'm willing to wait for something that I truly love."

[00:29:01] Liz: Yes, absolutely. I did read -and it was probably on your own website- that you're working on a textile waste secondhand clothing research project. You may have alluded to that a little bit already, but can you talk about that?

[00:29:16] Elizabeth: Sure. The research project is really an extension of the documentary that I started working on back in 2016. That research project is partially what just became The Conscious Closet. I went to have done a lot of on-the-ground research in Kenya, as I said earlier, talking to vendors there, but I also have done a lot of research with wearable collections. I mentioned them earlier, they're a Brooklyn or New York-based used clothing collectors, they pick up donations.

I have spent countless hours digging through what comes in to the wearable collections waste stream in order to better understand what they're getting rid of, what kinds of clothes were getting rid of, what condition we're getting rid of clothes in, because all of that helps inform solutions. That was how I realized that we were raising a generation of people that didn't know how to sew a button back on. [laughs]

Nobody enjoys sewing buttons back on, but it's a life skill at every single American, every person on the planet, must know how to do. I know secondhand traders, I also know the industry side of this. That could be the thing that makes someone just look at a garment and be like, "I'm just going to throw this away, because this garment is close to worthless anyway and it doesn't have a button on it." That can be the dividing line between something having a second life and something going in the trash. The research project is ongoing, it continues. I also just like digging through used clothes, so it's an excuse.

[laughter] 

[00:31:15] Liz: It sounds like a good excuse to me [laughs]. I know you've mentioned a ton of brands and a lot of the work that you're doing, is there a company or a brand that you've seen reuse materials? Or an innovative project that you've seen them do that has really wowed you?

[00:31:36] Elizabeth: Yes, I'm really fascinated by the concept that's upcycling at scale. True recycling, chemical recycling, is very energy-intensive, so what if we could take, worn-out, unstylish clothes that nobody wants to wear, save those textiles and upcycle them into new products, but do it in a way that is more industrialized so that it's profitable instead of prohibitively expensive? That's always been a challenge with upcycling.

Steven Bethell, who runs a huge used clothing company called Bank & Vogue and he also rents a retail chain called Beyond Retro in the UK and Sweden that sells second-hand clothes, they partnered with Converse this past year to do Chuck Taylors Converse sneakers where the uppers were made out of denim scraps. The way he was able to do that is because he has this massive sorting facility in India. They worked with the brand to get the exact color that they wanted, the right thickness, he was able to do this huge sort and those materials were salvaged and used in a very cool-looking sneaker, I keep meaning to get a pair.

That's one example of something I'm super excited about. We're starting to see these chemical recycling textiles come out. One example of that that I'm pretty floored by, is the Stella McCartney Adidas collaboration with Ever New. Ever New is a US-based textile recycling company. When I first saw the sweatshirt that they came out with, it was a prototype, I was like, "Okay, what's the big deal? You recycled clothes, we've been doing that for a long time", but what I've learned since then about the Ever New process is that they basically do what they call the molecular regeneration.

They're able to take cotton and break it down using the viscose manufacturing process to create a fiber that is high enough quality to be recycled, or it's at least four times, maybe five times. That is game-changing, because in the past, textile recycling has always produced a lower quality product. They've managed to create something that is a higher quality product than even the original cotton garment that they were working with, which is mind-blowing.

[00:34:34] Liz: That is mind blowing. I will check that out, and also check out the Converse as well. I'd love to hear about that innovation.

[00:34:41] Elizabeth: Yes. I think we need both solutions. The upcycling piece of it is really important because it's less energy-intensive, you're just taking material that already exists and repurposing it. We also have to have companies like Threadup that are just helping take all of these clothes that are out in existence and give them a second home. We have to have all of these things working together to make this happen.

[00:35:10] Liz: Yes, we definitely do. There are a lot of brands out there promising that they're being conscious and environmentally aware. Do you have any tips for people on avoiding greenwashing? Are there labels that you can trust?

[00:35:28] Elizabeth: That's a great question and I go into it quite a bit in The Conscious Closet. I don't want people to be scared off about greenwashing, I don't want people to worry too much about it. As consumers, you have to just decide for you how much research you're going to have to do into a brand. Even for me, I'm not going to spend an hour trying to figure out if a brand it's tricking me with their environmental campaigns.

Going back to something I said earlier, one of the ways that brands do have control over their sustainability is in the materials they choose. You can think of it like shopping for food. Look at the ingredients, what fabric is this company using? From there, it's actually not that complicated because a lot of this stuff we already into it or understand.

For example, with natural materials, you certainly can look for organic, you can look for organic cotton, organic wool. You can also look for -since this has come up so much already in this conversation- you can look for recycled cotton. It's not just the recycled plastic bottles that we're seeing, I'm seeing recycled cashmere, cashmere and wool, and now we're starting to see recycled cotton as well. That would be a good place to start. There are certifications, but there aren't nearly as many as there need to be [laughs]. That's a bigger conversation that the industry is having right now, how to standardize all these claims.

[00:37:25] Liz: That is a big question, hopefully that will get [unintelligible 00:37:28] away as well. What do you think it's the most resource-intensive part of our clothing? Is it the production? The washing, the disposing of it? What do you think has the biggest effect? It sounds like you're saying a combination of everything needs to be done, but I would love to hear what you think is the most resource intensive part. 

[00:37:51] Elizabeth: Far in a way, it's the manufacturing of new textiles. Most big brands, something usually between 70 and 90% of their environmental impact happens in manufacturing. It's not in the retail stores, not in the shipping, even, it's in the making of more clothes. Washing clothes does have a high environmental impact. It's hard to compare it, though, to manufacturing, because it depends.

If you keep a pair of jeans for five years and wash them over the course of five years, that's going to have a higher impact than if you're a fast fashion consumer and you buy a shirt, wash it once, and then throw it out. We want people to keep their clothes a long time, and we want people to wash more sustainably as well. But really, the big impact is in the making, which is why buying second hand has such a big impact. It really makes a difference if you just extend the life of that garment.

It's also why buying less can be so powerful. If you need clothes, if you do not have fashion in your life, please go out and buy what you need, but if you're that person that it's more like- I used to be that fast fashion consumer who's just buying because things are cheap, or on sale. You have a lot of power over your environmental footprint simply by pausing and saying, "You know what? I do not need that. My closet is full, I'm fine, I'm just going to walk away" [laughs]. 

[00:39:50] Liz: [laughs] That's great advice. I think things might be changing after this, as we're all home and really looking over our closets, our lives, and wanting to have order. It's good timing in that way, at least.

[00:40:05] Elizabeth: Yes. I see people having a lot of, I think, healthy conversations right now, as we are in quarantine. People are calling it The Great Pause, or Forced Slowing Down. It's just one of those moments in life where, especially in the US, you realize that so many of us we are so privileged and we are so lucky, we have so much.

Everything in the world around us is constantly telling us that we need more, that happiness is in the next purple, fuchsia, silk blouse that's 50% off. I've being shaken from some of those illusions. I think that we were already having conversations about being more mindful, and they've just accelerated because we're locked up and thinking about the lives that we lead and the world we want to build coming out of this.

[00:41:16] Liz: Absolutely. It'll be interesting to watch. Elizabeth, you've given us such great advice already, is there anything else you want to share about your book? Or anything else specific to waste and recycling that our audience would love?

[00:41:33] Elizabeth: I'll just say again that the book, The Conscious Closet, I did everything that I could to make it really fun and interesting. I think that there's something in it for everyone. I would not expect everyone to do everything in the book, but if you've been thinking about learning how to patch your jeans, or you've been thinking- a lot of people have been hand-washing since coronavirus started. If you've been wondering what a sustainable material is, all of that information is in The Conscious Closet.

You can also check it out from your libraries, is what I'll say. With your cash strapped, please just borrow it, lend it, that's also more sustainable too.

[00:42:19] Liz: That's great. I love that. I really appreciate your time today and I hope everyone can read your book, learn as much as I did and appreciate the work that you're doing. Thank you. Is there a Twitter handle or anything else you want folks to check out so they can follow the work you're doing?

[00:42:39] Elizabeth: Yes. I am pretty active on Instagram. My handle is my name: Elizabethlcline, all in one word. I also am on Twitter under the same handle. Find me on social media and shoot me any questions that you have

[00:42:57] Liz: Great. Thank you so much for this, I hope you and your loved ones stay well. I look forward to talking with you soon.

[00:43:05] Elizabeth: Sounds good. Everybody stay safe out there. 

Mostafiz Uddin and Elizabeth L. Cline

This week marks the seventh anniversary of Rana Plaza, a 2013 factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed and injured thousands of garment workers and awakened a global movement to reform the fashion industry. Seven years is a lot of time to make change. That’s a stretch of history that should yield serious transformation, especially considering how many companies and consumers claim to care about the ethics and sustainability of what they wear. Twenty-nineteen was the movement’s breakout year.

In the years since Rana Plaza, Bangladesh has emerged as a banner place to do business; a country where sustainable and safe factories are the norm. In fact, I was supposed to be in Bangladesh this month to document the industry’s grand media relations plan to “rebrand Bangladesh” as an ethical and sustainable manufacturing hub. But coronavirus changed everything. Now, our conscious fashion movement (which I am of course a part of), and our progress are rightly being called into question this week, after major and brands and retailers refused to pay for $3 billion worth of completed orders in their supplier factories in Bangladesh, leaving garment workers without a safety net and in some cases their last month’s pay. Around the world, stories of garment workers protesting for lost wages, going hungry, or manufacturing PPE without their own safety equipment fill the news.

Before coronavirus, the conversation about conscious fashion had a decidedly different timbre. Now, a new reality has emerged, or is it the same old reality? The fact is that, once again, it’s the garment workers who are bearing the brunt of this economic collapse. As we ponder whether we’ve made progress, we also need to realize that the definition of progress changes based on our vantage point. Brands, consumers, and factory owners have arguably made great strides in recent years to shop differently and make commitments to the environment. Factory workers have not shared equally in those gains.

“This will be much, much worse than Rana Plaza,” says Mustafiz Uddin, a prominent Bangladeshi factory owner and the country’s sole factory owner who is publicly critical of the cancellations [others are critical but are communicating off the record]. Here, we talk about the state of the fashion industry, what’s changed in seven years, and where activists, consumers and the clothing industry should go from here. How can we reconcile the sustainability movement and the movement for fair pay and living wages? Right now, we’re failing.

Elizabeth L. Cline: How did things change in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza and prior to coronavirus and brands cancelling orders?

Mustafiz Uddin: After Rana Plaza, Bangladesh became one of the safest countries in all of the world in terms of the production. If you look at the Accord and Alliance reports [the two organizations set up to improve factories following the Rana Plaza collapse], 90% of the factories had been remediated. Remediated means like if the factory had a problem after the Accord and Alliance inspections, then the factory owners had done the work to solve the problem.

“We are spending billions of dollars on remediation, on the Accord, the Alliance, sustainability, the environment. But what changes have these workers seen? Nothing. ”

— Mostafiz Uddin

EC: I was supposed to come to Bangladesh in April to document everything that’s changed for the better. But I’ve also read that the prices paid to factories by brands and retailers for clothing has actually gone down since Rana Plaza. Is that true?

MU: That’s true.

EC: How can that be?

MU: Because buyers already squeeze the price, and then there is overcapacity, so everybody just accepts the orders. There are way too many factories.

EC: Bangladesh also has invested heavily into sustainable production. Last April, the US Green Building Council gave platinum (the highest) ratings to 24 of the country’s factories , the highest concentration anywhere. When did those changes start and what prompted them?

MU: Only after Rana Plaza did that start. [The sustainability investments] just started out of our own sense of responsibility [to the environment]. My factory is one of the most modern for sustainability. We have a water recycling plant, eco equipment. We also follow the climate change action procedure. We have a lot of renewable energy, and green buildings in Bangladesh. 

EC: Do you think brands will start paying more for orders moving forward since you’ve made these investments into sustainability?

MU: I think [brands and retailers] will be reducing their prices [paid to factories] more now [because of coronavirus]. They will still come to us and say we need a better price, we need more of a discount. I'm sure the next two years, they will say this. If they have a loss in the first quarter of the year, they try to make up that money in the second quarter of the year.

EC: Let's talk about the buyer cancellations, where brands refused to pay for completed goods. I do feel like there's still some consumers in the West who don't understand why that is such a problem.

MU: Consumers are thinking that we are asking buyers for future orders. So whenever I am posting about [the cancellations], I get messages saying buyers are in trouble, people are not in the shops, people aren't going out of their homes. How can you ask them for more orders? We are not asking them to take responsibility for next three months. What we are asking them is to take responsibility for what we already produced for them.

The second thing is that some brands are getting government bailouts. Like one of my buyers, Arcadia group [which is owned by billionaire Philip Green and is the parent company that owns Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge], he's not paying my money for cancelled orders, but he's getting money from his government. His retail workers are getting 80% salary [the UK government is paying 80% of the salaries of workers furloughed due to the pandemic, but this isn’t the case in all countries]. His rent is free [the UK government has put in place a rent freeze for retailers, but this isn’t the case in all countries]. Then why is he still not paying the money? I really don't understand this one. We are not asking any charity from them. We just want them to keep the commitment for what they asked us to produce.

“We are not asking any charity from [brands]. We just want them to keep the commitment for what they asked us to produce.”

— Mostafiz Uddin

EC: Do you think that the #PayUp campaign , which is a coalition of labor groups and activists who are calling out brands who aren’t paying for completed work, is helping?

MU: Of course it is helping. Because of the campaign only, we are getting a lot of money.

EC: What else can consumers do to help? 

Consumers must not only just buy green, sustainable, and environment-friendly garments, they should also understand the people behind the garments who made it. Don’t just think about climate action change and about less water. The consumers need to understand that the poor people who are producing their garments, they should be as equally important as the environment. Because sustainability means people, planet, and profit. Sustainability doesn't only mean the planet.

And consumers need to believe in their own power. They have to understand what they can do. By saying that they cannot do anything, I think they are just escaping their responsibility. They should use their power and say, no to these unethical brands who are not paying their workers. 

“By saying that they cannot do anything, I think [consumers] are just escaping their responsibility. They should use their power and say no to these unethical brands who are not paying their workers. ”

— Mostafiz Uddin

EC: What needs to change on a structural level to make the fashion industry ethical after coronavirus?

MU: [Uddin says that the financial instruments and contracts arranged between buyers and factories should be changed]. We should have a body to monitor these buyers and their activities, and whether they are paying ethically or not. Like the Accord and Alliance; we need the same thing but for the buyers. There is no regulatory body for the buyers. They need some accountability; at the moment they have no accountability.

EC: Today is the anniversary of Rana Plaza. What is this day like for you?

MU: To be honest, nothing has changed. I spent the whole day thinking where I was seven years before. What changes have happened? In Rana Plaza, the workers had to suffer. Today, the workers are also suffering, so what changes have we brought? And whose luck had been changed? That is my question to you. We are spending billions of dollars in remediation, on the Accord, the Alliance, sustainability, the environment. But what changes have these workers seen? Nothing. Who is having to worry about the food, about their job, about their children? The worker. Not me and not the buyer and not the consumer. The worker is the most vulnerable in the whole supply chain.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  

 

Real Simple magazine has launched its definitive list of the best books of 2019. Every month, the editors of Real Simple read and vet dozens of books (tough job, but someone has to do it) to choose the novels, memoirs, and nonfiction works we think you should buy next. Many go on to be bestsellers, while others are unexpected finds. Coming it at #9 is The Conscious Closet, which the magazine says this of:

The Conscious Closet, by Elizabeth L. Cline

Many of us probably want to buy a little more ethically and sustainably when it comes to our clothes. But it can be hard to move away from fast-fashion habits, purge closets, and distinguish between authentic and deceptive marketing. Let Elizabeth L. Cline be your guide to shopping better—whether you’re a minimalist or a fashionista—in her reassuring, resource-filled book, The Conscious Closet.

If you’d love to build a more sustainable wardrobe but worry it’ll break the bank, here’s a piece of very good news: You can cut the impact of your clothes without spending a dime. No really. A sustainable wardrobe is not defined by the products you buy. You needn’t replace all your clothes with pricey organic cotton and hemp to go “sustainable.” In fact, sustainability is as much about how you wear and care for clothes, especially those you already have. Ultimately, sustainable fashion is a set of easy, everyday practices that can help you save money, save the planet, improve your style, and change your life for the better! Here, I’ve compiled six simple ways to be an eco-friendly fashion lover that are totally and completely free.

1. Take A (Brief) Break From Shopping

It might sound like deprivation, but many people, including me, who go on a brief shopping diet or just cut back on their purchases discover life-changing benefits: It can free up time and money to spend on anything from organizing your wardrobe or house, hanging out with friends or family, or even funding a more fulfilling hobby. Shopping less can be one of the easiest and cheapest ways to be more sustainable. By skipping a new pair of jeans, you’ve saved the planet 1,800 gallons of water, the amount each American drinks in THIRTY YEARS! By skipping a pair of leather shoes, you are cutting your carbon impact by 10 kgs, the same as NOT burning ten pounds of coal. A little bit of restraint goes a long way. For more tips on going on a Fashion Fast, pick up a copy of my book, The Conscious Closet.

2. Get More Use Out of Your Clothes

Don’t sweat it if your closet isn’t full of Fair Trade and organic cotton finds. The greenest fashion is fashion already own and want to keep wearing for seasons to come! Consumer surveys show that we’re only wearing our clothes a mere 7 timeson average before considering them dated… and moving on to the next new thing. What’s more, only 20% of what’s in our closets is being worn at all. Getting more use out of the clothes we already own is an easy and free way to be sustainable. Rather than banishing pieces to the back of the closet, keep clothes current by imagining new ways to style them. Wear them with a different pair of pants or shoes or accessory for example. Or simply take a break and look at the item with fresh eyes in a few weeks or months. I highly recommend using a smartphone app like Stylebook or my personal favorite Cladwell to keep up with what’s in your closet and to help with outfit inspiration. For more tips on building a wardrobe, pick up a copy of my book, The Conscious Closet.

3. Donate, Don’t Throw Away Clothes

We all get that impulse to clear out our closets, purge everything and start anew. A closet clean-out can be transformative, but it can also be terribly unsustainable if you throw those unwanted items into the trash. Textiles and clothes are almost 100% reusable or recyclable. And yet the volumes of textiles going into landfills has increased 40% in one decade. Donate or recycle all items of clothing instead of trashing them. You can donate items to a local charity. If they won’t accept the worn out items for recycling (ask, as some of them do!), take those items to one of the growing list of fashion brands that have in-store clothing recycling. In the U.S., they include H&M, & Other Stories, The North Face, Levi’s, and American Eagle. Just look for the collection boxes in any retail location and inquire about discounts on new purchases. Eileen Fisherrecycles its own clothes, as does Patagonia. Madewell accepts their jeans for recycling. For more tips on how to mindfully recycle and donate clothes, pick up a copy of my book The Conscious Closet.

4. Wash Your Clothes Less

We’re taught to wash clothes between each and every wear. This idea was surely dreamed up by the appliance and detergent companies because washing so often damages fiber and fades dyes. It’s bad for clothes! But is It unclean to skip a few laundry days? Here’s a study that shows jeans that have gone unwashed for an entire year have no harmful bacteria. And there’s no need to be extreme. According to the UN, we can consume up to five times less energy by merely wearing clothes three times before washing, as well as by washing them in cold water, and skipping the dryer and hang drying instead. Washing less isn’t just free, it’s a huge cost saver in terms of energy and water bills. For more tips on how to reduce the impact of your laundry routine, pick up a copy of my book, The Conscious Closet.

5. Let Brands Know You Care About Sustainable Fashion!

Activism, unlike shopping, is free! One of the most powerful things you can do as a sustainable fashion lover is let the brands you love know that you care about the environment and human rights. Take a few minutes to look up your favorite fashion companies on Good On You or Rankabrand and, if you find they’re not doing enough to help the environment and their workers, drop them a line and tell them to step it up! You can use Twitter, Instagram, email or a customer service phone line to get in touch. Use the Fashion Revolution Write a Brand template to help get you started. While you’re at it, tell those brands you want more sustainable products at a price we can all afford! For more tips on how to use your voice to change fashion, pick up a copy of my book The Conscious Closet.

The first trade review is in for THE CONSCIOUS CLOSET, and it is *starred* by Booklist, an important trade magazine for reviewers, librarians, booksellers, and industry folk. Reviewer Barbara Jacobs raves about the book, calling it, “A must-read for all fashion-lovers who care about the state of the planet.”

”It’s time to source [fashion] sustainably and buy/recycle more ethically. Luckily, Cline has six-step process to help readers do just that. By no means an overnight process, her phases—goodbye, fast fashion; the art of less—and of more; a handbook to sustainable fashion; make it last; and the fashion revolution (which outlines making living wages a reality and other road maps for change)—require a lot of learning, and conscious efforts to curb the excess. The directions, though, are very readable and peppered with information readers will retain.”

I’m SO excited to officially announce the forthcoming release of my new book and its gorgeous cover! Called The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good, this 300-page guide is the commonsense and affordable approach to sustainable and ethical style you’ve been looking for! It’s based on fresh research, interviews, and my own personal experiences getting off the fast fashion treadmill. In it, I reveal how to pare down your closet; swap, resell, or recycle what you don't love; seek out ethical and sustainable brands; green your laundry routine; learn easy and fun mending techniques; and affordably buy, thrift, or rent the ethical wardrobe of your dreams. Whether your goal is to build an effortless capsule wardrobe, keep up with trends, buy quality, seek out ethical brands, or all of the above, this is the book for you. The book is out in August, but you can go ahead and pre-order it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble or from your local, independent bookseller on Indiebound!

ABOUT THE CONSCIOUS CLOSET

From journalist, fashionista, and clothing resale expert Elizabeth L. Cline, “the Michael Pollan of fashion,”* comes the definitive guide to building an ethical, sustainable wardrobe you’ll love.

Clothing is one of the most personal expressions of who we are. In her landmark investigation Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion,Elizabeth L. Cline first revealed fast fashion’s hidden toll on the environment, garment workers, and even our own satisfaction with our clothes. The Conscious Closet shows exactly what we can do about it.

Whether your goal is to build an effortless capsule wardrobe, keep up with trends without harming the environment, buy better quality, seek out ethical brands, or all of the above, The Conscious Closet is packed with the vital tools you need. Elizabeth delves into fresh research on fashion’s impacts and shows how we can leverage our everyday fashion choices to change the world through style. Inspired by her own revelatory journey getting off the fast-fashion treadmill, Elizabeth shares exactly how to build a more ethical wardrobe, starting with a mindful closet clean-out and donating, swapping, and selling the clothes you don’t love to make way for the closet of your dreams. 

The Conscious Closet is not just a style guide. It is a call to action to transform one of the most polluting industries on earth—fashion—into a force for good. Readers will learn where our clothes are made and how they’re made, before connecting to a global and impassioned community of stylish fashion revolutionaries. In The Conscious Closet, Elizabeth shows us how we can start to truly love and understand our clothes again—without sacrificing the environment, our morals, or our style in the process.

*Michelle Goldberg, Newsweek/The Daily Beast

Clothing is the first category to be purged in each episode of Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, the hit Netflix show featuring the lifestyle expert. Kondo’s clients (and, in turn, millions of American viewers) start by making a mountain of clothes on their beds, pausing to ask if they “spark joy,” and thanking them before casting them out. The show has coincided with unprecedented spikes in clothing sent to thrift shops around the country, with some shops reporting long lines to donate and outdated closet dregs brought in by the suitcase-full.

For more than a century, charities have linked the process of getting rid of stuff with some higher purpose. Now, Kondo has tapped into that long-running and cherished American myth too. She’s recast discarding waste as a virtue, or at least a necessary step in personal reinvention. Read the rest of Cline’s article over at Slate.

In light of the U.S. trade war with China, Elizabeth Cline was invited on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show for a 10 Minute Explainer on fast fashion. In the segment, she explains how the "fast fashion" industry is fueled by cheap production overseas, and how consumers can build a more ethical closet. Cline is a journalist, clothing resale expert and author of the forthcoming book, The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good (Plume, 2019). Fast fashion -- trendy, mass-manufactured, affordable clothes -- relies on the abundance of cheap labor around the world, says @elizabethlcline
- The Brian Lehrer Show (@brianlehrer)

"There are 40 million people working as garment workers around the world today... Clothing is not an automated process, *people* make our clothes" - @elizabethlcline on "Fast Fashion"
- The Brian Lehrer Show (@brianlehrer)

"There are good and bad impacts of fast fashion." Affordability has increased access and interest in style. On the other hand, @elizabethlclinesays, Fast Fashion designers often rip off ideas from others, and that hurts the industry.
- The Brian Lehrer Show (@brianlehrer)

Elizabeth L. Cline on NBC Nightly News

Consumers are purchasing more clothing with the rise of fast fashion, but they’re also throwing more out. Americans send four times more clothing to the landfill today than they did in 1980, and those discarded items can take years to decompose. On May 5, 2019, NBC Nightly News aired an interview with “Overdressed” and “The Conscious Closet” author Elizabeth L. Cline about the rising environmental toll of the fashion industry. For example, the majority of clothing today is made out of polyester, a synthetic plastic material made out of oil. Cline, “Just to make the polyester we are wearing requires 342 million barrels of oil per year.” You can watch the full episode here. For those who caught the segment, you can learn more about Elizabeth here and you can order a copy of Overdressed via Amazon or Barnes & Noble. If you’re looking for ways to create a more sustainable and ethical wardrobe, pre-order Elizabeth’s new book, The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good.

Conspicuous consumption is out -- and circular fashion is in. No, the term doesn't refer to round patterns or silhouettes but to extending the lifecycle of well-made garments and recycling their materials into new items. 

This trend is gaining traction as both designers and consumers become increasingly aware of -- and startled by -- the outsize toll linear clothing production takes on the environment. "Fashion's carbon impact is much larger than the industry's GDP. It's taking up more than its fair share of impact on the planet," said Elizabeth L. Cline, author of the forthcoming book "The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good."

The meteoric rise of "fast fashion" -- the business of quickly turning around new collections, often at lower prices to encourage consumption -- in particular is proving to be toxic for the environment. Linear systems use large quantities of nonrenewable resources, and more than half of these styles get tossed within a year, according to McKinsey's 2016 report "Style that's sustainable: A new fast fashion formula."

Read the full article over at CBS News.