The Sustainable Fashion Handbook

Image of The Sustainable Fashion Handbook
Author(s): 
Release Date: 
March 26, 2013
Publisher/Imprint: 
Thames & Hudson
Pages: 
352
Reviewed by: 

“. . . not really for the fashion crowd at all.”

Okay, so here is the deal: The Sustainable Fashion Handbook should be viewed as part manifesto, part edict, part suicide note, part doctrine, and part solution for the future—and most certainly NOT light reading for the average fashion based reader.

Ms. Black offers up an exhaustively researched and over documented view of fashion supposedly with an environmental and ecological slant, assessing fashion from every minute detail.

In today’s world, researching and substantiating supposed facts about anything has become somewhat easy with the age of the Internet, but there comes a time and limit when too much information is just that, TMI. The Sustainable Fashion Handbook goes far beyond what one might expect from its title, but it absolutely does live up the first sentence on the jacket flaps, for it is: “the sourcebook for all aspects of sustainable fashion.”

The word all should be bolded and capitalized and italicized and underscored for emphasis here.

While the environment, sustainability, and ecology are certainly major topics of discussion in the 21st century, Ms. Black has turned fashion into a cause celebre solvable only by totally reinventing every aspect of it from thread to disposal of finished garment.

Suffice it to say: this is no lighthearted examination of sustainability and its relation to fashion.

Despite the interviews with many designers, both famous such as Dries and Stella and many unknown and fledgling designers, one cannot help but notice that the “sustainable aspect” of fashion is not exactly the main topic of conversation here. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors involved here to give you the idea that these interviews are necessary and valid, while their connection to the topic was tenuous, the general tone of the book far more cautionary, educational, analytical, scientific, and informative than designer- or fashion-based.

Again, despite its beautiful presentation and physicality, this is not the usual fare for the fashion hungry. The Sustainable Fashion Handbook is some highly serious reading that cannot be digested in one sitting and probably not even three or four.

Honestly, this book is not really for the fashion crowd at all. The Sustainable Fashion Handbook is more for those who are feverishly concerned about the topics of sustainability, environment, and all earth-preserving topics of which fashion is but a micro-mini subset.