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61
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
70/100Critics
53/100Scholars
Author:
Sofi Thanhauser
Publisher:
Pantheon
Date:
January 25, 2022
In this panoramic social history, Sofi Thanhauser tells five stories organized by fabricâLinen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Woolâabout the clothes we wear and where they come from, from the opulent court of 17th-century France's Louis Quatorze to the labor camps in modern-day Chinese-occupied Xinjiang.
What The Reviewers Say
One of the great pleasures of this panoramic history of getting dressed is Sofi Thanhauser’s ability to spot moments...where human desire and material culture collide.
Although there is much to be depressed about in this book (the writing at times can turn into a bit of a jeremiad), in wool especially there is reason for optimism.
... a work of history, it is less popular than personal and less about clothing itself—its types, its richness, its diversity—than about the sociopolitical dimensions of its production. Those who hope to find out from this book what wonderful clothes people used to wear, in what different ways and for what varied purposes, might be disappointed. It is one thing to describe the history and present state of textile industries in India, for example, but it is unfortunate that Thanhauser does not take this opportunity to discuss the long history of the sari, its evolution through centuries of conquest and colonialism, and its connections to gender, religion and sexuality in India. The scope of the book is narrower than its ambition, and the writing seldom attains the eloquence to which it aspires. These reservations notwithstanding, I still want people to read this book. As an argument against the horrors of fast fashion and the social and environmental disasters it provokes, it is powerful and persuasive. What’s more, it might make you think twice about stepping into that high-street store again..
... the joy of this history of clothing, which is eminently readable and meticulously researched, is its focus on people.
