DNF'd at 24%. Sadly, this one wasn't for me. I found it a bit too dry and technical, even though some of the history was interesting. I think I was expecting a history of clothes rather than of fabric, but I'm sure others would enjoy it, especially anyone with more than a passing interest in the clothing industry. Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an advance release copy, i appreciate it and I'm sorry that this one didn't work for me.

Clothing and fashion have always been important – though somewhat maligned and trivialized – and this book is an excellent overview of innovation in clothing and the impact clothing had on global politics. It also goes into the labor – both paid and unpaid – that historically has gone, and still goes, into the production of clothing. It also focuses on women’s involvement (often unpaid) and how women’s legal precarious legal status upheld their often unpaid or underpaid labor.

> Under coverture, married women legally owned nothing, but by custom they possessed the linens. The word ‘coverture’ appeared in English for the first time around 1200 and was originally a term used for a coverlet or quilt. Beneath this quilt, appropriately enough, lay the rightful territory of women: the linens.
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This book is a thorough explainer of where the building blocks of clothes come from and the social history that goes with that farming and manufacturing. We travel from the agriculture of the middle ages, through the industrial revolution and slavery in the United States, and into the lasting effects of colonialism. Parts of this book are very dark, but I think it is important to understand the real and metaphorical journey clothes – a necessity for *everyone* – took before they arrived on the hangers of H&M. I learned a lot and fleshed out my previously-held knowledge. It dovetailed really well with the two *Stuff You Missed in History Class* podcast episodes about the [invention of the sewing machine](https://www.stitcher.com/show/stuff-you-missed-in-history-class/episode/symhc-classics-the-contentious-invention-of-the-sewing-machine-51175714) and the [life of Isaac Merritt Singer](https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/stuff-you-missed-in-history-cl-2787/episodes/isaac-merrit-singer-126797).

I was lucky enough to read it in conjunction with They Were Her Property by Dr. Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, which also talked about women, class, and clothing production, focusing specifically on female slave ownership in the antebellum South. They fit together well and I would recommend them both. Cotton agriculture in the American South, which relied on slavery, was hugely important to cotton production for clothes, and Thanhauser does not attempt to gloss over this fact in this short, but informative book.

Really made me think about where my clothes come from! This book talks about fabric, mainly from usa, and it made me aware of how little we appreciate our clothes and fabric.
Thank you netgalley

An interesting history book, though maybe incorrectly titled when there was so much social history included. Not sure I would have downloaded it if I'd known as I was expecting it to be more centred on actual clothing. Also very American, which isn't a bad thing in itself, just now quite what I had been expecting. Having said all that I did find it well written.

Many thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This book goes far beyond a history of clothing, it is a fantastic historical journey on the complexities of trade, racism and sexism, and that is before we get to the ethical considerations of our current clothing industry.

A fully informed look at how the clothing industry has helped to shape our world, and the inequalities that have molded this industry.

Very pleasantly surprised by this book, which I downloaded on a whim as a change from my usual fiction genres. Worn is a recommended read for anyone interested in fashion, social history or eco-living, being both educational and entertaining.
Thanhauser takes us on a journey through time using thread and fabric to tell the story of how materials have changed the world. For the most part, Worn is a fascinating account of the development of yarns and the creation of "fashion" as opposed to simply clothing. It takes in the discovery of new materials and production techniques and their impacts on the societies and communities who produce and use them.
Certain aspects were real eye-openers to me, especially in terms of the environmental impacts of different products and the harm they can cause both the workers who produce them and the planet around us.
If I have any criticism, it would be that there are a couple of sections where the pace slackens, in particular where Thanhauser is talking about mills in the USA and factories in the Far East. However, it is worth pushing through these sections. Overall it is a very interesting book and it has changed how I will buy clothing in the future, looking for sustainable, long-wearing fabrics produced safely and ethically.

I found the first two chapters on Linen and the history and importance of linen fascinating. The sections on silk and wool were also interesting but there was too much emphasis on the USA in other sections.
The book is well researched and full of detail but I found the style difficult to read. Academic sections are interspersed with more discursive anecdotal sections, which are lengthy.. I would have preferred a more succinct narrative where the sections drawn from personal experience were summarised and analysed and conclusions drawn. There was an uneasy alternation between academic sections and story sections, whoch for me spoiled the flow of the book.
Although they were somewhat buried in the anecdotal sections the points made at the end about the need for sustainable rather than throwaway textiles are important.

Thank you to Penguin Press for the ARC. I did find this a little slow in places, especially as it was very America-centred - which is not an inherent flaw, just something I was less interested in. But it was well-structured and had a lot of very interesting pieces of history I was not aware of. It would be 100% improved by illustrations as it is talking about some a visual medium, it can be hard to follow when I don't know what to picture.

It was difficult to get too engaged in this book as it was too centered on USA.
I found myself skipping parts.

Shopping for clothes has never been easier. A casual browse of Instagram, an ad catches your eye-it's a dress you think would be absolutely perfect with those new shoes you bought. A couple of clicks later, and it's on its way to your house. I haven't paid any mind , though, to the decades of changes that have taken place in the world of textiles, to make this happen. Sofi Thanhauser's magisterial work really makes you think about what you're wearing, and the costs to humans, and to nature, of that shirt you wore just once and then tossed to the back of the cupboard. I cannot recommend this book enough, and I'm already on my second re-read of it.
THanhauser investigates the 5 main fibres used by humans-Linen, Cotton, Wool, Silk, Nylon. She zeroes in on specific personal stories, focussing on a particular aspect in the production of that particular fibre, and then draws her focus outwards, to take in all the aspects that go into large scale production of that fibre, and all the costs involved. It's a wonderful way to get a nuanced understanding, and she's done this for what are five different, complex industries, each with their own idiosyncracies. I didn't know, for instance, about America being the world's largest exportter of cotton, or the huge subsidies that maintain the industry. For fibres such as linen and wool, Thanhauser traces an entire rise and downfall, and a cyclical rebirth of sorts with these fibres' essential utilities being rediscovered. Her human interest stories are fascinating, and each one quite unique-her chapter on wool, for instance, mention oil rig employees who would be well-served by woollen fibres, and using synthetic made jackets instead, and she uses that to explore the decreased uses of wool, even in situations where that might be a wiser choice, and the circumstances that led to that. I particularly loved her writings on the "Dumptique", as she says it was called-a shack near a landfill, at Martha's VIneyard, where all the wealthy weekend visitors and holiday-home owners would offload their unused and old clothes, that local teenagers would rummage through to get some designer used clothes.
Through the stories of these textiles, she explores the story of humanity, technology and innovation and the inhuman solutions capitalism comes up with to satisfy ever-growing demand, without regard to human costs, and the deleterious impact this has-not just on nature, but on human development as well. Men might make clothes, but clothes maketh the man too!

Interesting blurb and idea, you can tell it has been well researched and rhe author does have a passion for clothing.... however is too focused in the US and the lack of illustrations make it a bit hard to follow

Well, talk about a book not being what the blurb says, I might cite this in future. Incredibly narrow US perspective of the world rather than a global book. Definitely not my thing.

I was really carried away by this one, an exploration of Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics and Wool, and a journey across the world to uncover the labour, the making and the industry that carries us all from day to day in clothes we barely think twice about, but which remain deeply personal to us. Worn explores the social and environmental impacts of garment-making, tying together the story of what we wear with who we are. Epic!

Fascinating read about the history of material and clothing. Well researched and well written. For those who would be interested in clothing and what it says about a society then this is a must.

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser confronts us with the awful realities of the textile industry, uncovering a world where the people who make our clothes now are seldom paid what they deserve and are often harmed by the industry. The book has sections on linen, cotton, silk, synthetics and wool. As she explains, “… the history and reportage [this book] contains is weighted towards understanding the U.S.’s role in building a global garment trade that touches every corner of the world.” Although it's definitely US-centric, part of the section on wool describes the author’s visit to Woolfest in Cumbia one year.

The book is not a light read. Although the narrative is mostly about Thanhauser’s visits to factories; people’s homes; and workplaces, it is very fact-heavy and depressing reading. Cotton uses 8,500 litres of water to make 1Kg but wheat only needs 900 litres. About 24 per cent of the world’s insecticide is used for cotton farming, polluting water supplies. A pair of jeans uses 20,000 litres of water – the amount that could be used to grow the wheat needed to bake a loaf of bread every week for a year.

It's unlikely that anyone looking for cheap clothing on the UK high streets has any idea of the human activity (and suffering and exploitation). It might also be unlikely that they care.

#Worn #NetGalley

An impressive and thoroughly researched work on clothes and our relationship to their production and use. This should be essential reading for anyone going into the textile and fashion industry, with horrifying details of exploitation and disregard for the balance of nature. Mass production brings about change, and hardly any of it is for the better. At times I was overwhelmed by the statistics of death and disease, the toxic nature of bending the natural order to the will to make money. The author has quite literally gone to the ends of the earth to personalise her data, speaking to so many people affected by the themes of her work. Not all are victims of enforced poverty and labour, some are quite proud to be the perpetrators of mass production, and devastation. She also is very successful at linking mythology and storytelling to our relationship to clothes, looking into tribal communities and telling their stories.

I finished this with a feeling of absolute determination to change my buying habits. I had already vowed to never buy denim again, but I will go further, checking where my fabric (I do make clothes) and clothing comes from. Maybe we should all heed this warning about our excessive consumption and waste.

‘Unerringly, cloth tells the story of the rise and fall of our societies and cultures,’ writes Sofi Thanhauser in the conclusion to Worn: A People’s History of Clothing – a statement with which, having read this richly detailed book, I am more than inclined to agree. In five sections devoted to linen, cotton, silk, synthetics and wool, Worn unpicks the fabrics we use to clothe ourselves on a daily basis, tracing the line where clothing and politics intersect, and illuminating many of the fashion industry’s darker corners. Drawing on a range of personal investigations and a solid body of research, Thanhauser has written a highly engaging book that should serve to change the way we think about our clothes.

[...]

If it sounds like an ambitious project, it is – yet Thanhauser’s unwavering enthusiasm for her subject and gentle but insistent urging towards change ensure that Worn remains engaging, no matter how knotted up in detail it may get. Snippets of archive material – mill songs, diaries, newspaper clippings – are scattered throughout the book to great effect, and Thanhauser has a fine eye for both humorous anecdotes and encounters that will underscore the more serious aspects of her message. For as much as it might be pleasantly informative to read about linen embroidery or dyeing techniques, the subtitle of this book must never be forgotten. Returning time and again to ‘the immense amount of human labor necessary to handle fabric’, Worn is a history of how people use garments – but also how the garment industry has very often used them.

[excerpts from the full review available on my blog]

This book made me feel very nostalgic. Well researched and comprehensive, although the style is quite American.. A good book if you are interested in textiles and fashion history.

Very informative book,which explains everything from how all different types of materials are produced right up to them being made. It makes you appreciate the clothes we have.

An interesting and thought provoking review of the history of clothing fabrics and their shocking impact on culture, society and the environment. Linen. Cotton. Silk. Synthetics. Wool.

Hopefully more people will become much more informed and make more conscious decisions about clothing in order to support and help prevent harm to workers unable to attain basic human rights and living standards, and also to reduce the constant harm being done to the environment.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.