A look at fast fashion and its impact on the environment and social justice, perfect for middle grade classrooms Did you ever think about where your jeans come from? How about the people who made your T-shirt, or what happens to the clothes you grow out of when you're done wearing them? The fabrics clothes are made of, the way they are designed and sewn and shipped around the world, and the way we consume them and get rid of them--every step in this process has a big impact on our environment, on the people who work in clothing factories, and on our cultures. This nonfiction book shows us how the clothes we wear--and throw away--every day are made, and what that means for our planet and for people around the world. ★ "The text stays conversational, never talking down to young readers, and instead equipping them with economicand manufacturing knowledge through personal anecdotes and company spotlights (and even occasional pronunciation help) . . . An immensely compelling and critical guide for young readers beginningto make their own fashion choices." — Booklist , starred review "If readers have ever wondered where the inexpensive current fashion items come from, those questions will be answered . . . Socially conscious readers will appreciate this title." — School Library Connection “Thomas travels the world to find innovators tackling the consequences of fast fashion . . . a compelling and devastating argument for why we should all be making more thoughtful choices.” —Daisy Lester, The Independent Dana Thomas is the author of Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes , Fashionopolis Young Readers Edition, Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano and the New York Times bestseller Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster , all published by Penguin Press. She is the European Sustainability Editor for British Vogue , a regular contributor to the New York Times , and hosts “The Green Dream,” a weekly podcast on sustainability, produced by Wondercast.Studio. She wrote the screenplay for Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams , a feature documentary directed by Luca Guadagnino, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020.   Thomas began her career writing for the Style section of The Washington Post , and for fifteen years she served as a cultural and fashion correspondent for Newsweek in Paris. Thomas has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, T: The New York Times Style Magazine , and Architectural Digest . In 1987, she received the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation’s Ellis Haller Award for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism. In 2016, the French Minister of Culture named Thomas a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. And in 2017, she was a Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good. She lives in Paris. CHAPTER ONE: Ready to Wear Walk into a fast-fashion store—­a Zara, an H&M, an Urban Outfitters, a Gap—­and what do you see? A cool space with cool music and cool sales assistants who are eager to help you. But most of all you will see racks and racks of cool clothes. Dresses, shirts, pants, jeans. All affordable—­even cheap. What you don’t see is how these clothes were made. Where they are made. Who makes them. You don’t know what the factory looks like. Is it clean and safe? Or a dirty, illegal, falling-­down building, known as a sweatshop? You don’t know how the cotton was grown. Or how the sheep that were raised for the wool were treated. Or what it takes to make synthetic fabrics—­meaning non-­natural fabrics—­such as polyester, nylon, spandex, or rayon. What is rayon anyway? And you don’t see where all those cool design ideas came from. What I’m about to lay out for you here are the basics of mass production, or the “supply chain”: the system of companies and people making and delivering an item. For a T-­shirt, the supply chain begins with the cotton farmer, followed by the mill where the cotton is spun, the dye house where it is dyed, and the factory where it is sewn. And while I’ll be explaining how clothes are made, I could be talking about anything that is manufactured—­from toys to electronics. I’ll show how the system has been corrupted by greed, and how that greed has hurt people and the planet. I will spotlight some heroes who have fought against this dark system, and have come up with a cleaner, safer, more honest way of making and selling clothing. And I’ll show you some of the amazing inventions that can take it all forward in a better way. Let’s start by looking at how the fashion business is structured. Picture a pyramid. In the small triangle at the top are one-­of-­a-­kind, made-­to-­measure clothes for elite customers. For women, it’s known as haute couture (pronounced “oat co-­CHURE”), a French term that translates to “high sewing.” For men, it’s bespoke (“bee-­SPOKE”) tailoring. These clothes are