Clothes are important. They define who we are, impact our mood and influence how people think of us. Today the average person buys 60% more clothes than they did 15 years ago and wears them for half as long. Last year 100 billion garments were made worldwide, most by workers paid virtually nothing and 70% from plastic textiles made from oils that don't recycle. 30% of all clothes are never sold and two thirds of clothes we own we never wear. The equivalent of one bin lorry full of clothing is dumped in landfill or burned every single second. In this passionate and revealing book about loving clothes but hating the way they're made, Patrick Grant considers the crisis of the global fashion industry and how to set it right not just by changing what we wear but by valuing quality and provenance across our lives. Weaving in his personal journey through fashion and clothing he explains how when it comes to our wardrobe, less is more. This is a book that celebrates quality, craftsmanship, making things well and mending them when needed. About buying high quality things made locally to help sustain skilled manufacturing jobs, and bringing prosperity and hope back to places in our country that have lost out to globalisation, offshore manufacturing and to the madness of price being the only thing that matters.
