The #1 book on my reading list is Elizabeth Cline’s Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Not only does it sound like exactly the thing to fuel my already evangelical philosophy toward consumerism (assuming she can tell me something I don’t already know), but she’s being compared to Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, heavily researching and exposing the detriments of buying mass-produced shit. About one million people have recommended it to me, including Crispin Argento of PINO, who, as far as I can tell, contacted Cline as soon as he read the last page of the book. Thanks to his efforts, Cline is coming out from Brooklyn on September 4th for “Portland Undressed: A Dinner and Conversation with New York Author Elizabeth Cline and the Future of Sustainable Fashion.” It will take place at the Cleaners, catered by Clyde Common, and will heavily feature me nodding in aggressive agreement, asking questions, and furiously taking notes.
I’m sure this will go over as well as ethical meat-eaters’ implied argument that only people who can afford to pay the true cost of humanely-raised-and transported-and-slaughtered meat should get to enjoy it.
Yeah, well I’m curious to hear her perspective on that aspect of the issue. I’d be very surprised if she placed the onus solely on the average consumer.