Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-Hand Clothes Paperback – March 15, 2015

This could be an excellent book instead of merely good and informative. The author sets his intriguing analysis of the global used clothing market within a sort of neo-Marxist frame, more readable than one might expect, but it turns an interesting account into a case study for the inadequacies of global capitalist systems, asserting things much change lest poverty be institutionalized. In addition, Brooks uses some words that are likely to obscure his meaning. For example, most readers are not going to be interested in "fetishism" in the market and "semiotic" anything is almost guaranteed to put the general reader to sleep.So why four stars, if I'm this critical? Even with the bias, this is an interesting topic, and the book is full of information, much of it based on the author's experiences in Mozambique and elsewhere. Several chapters stand out. The others, well, readers sample the book before you buy. Chapter 1, "A Biography of Jeans" is interesting. The world market for jeans is $60 billion, an eighth of the global clothing sector. Chapter 3, "The Shadow World of Used Clothing" has intriguing discussion of where used clothing originates and how it is sold. The second hand global trade is $4.3 billion (this seems quite an underestimate), citing UN figures for 2013, and in some countries this used clothes market is the major source for clothes. Chapter 6, "Second Hand Africa" describes some of his experiences in Mozambique, and is informative on how the clothes are actually sold, and how people decide to buy them.One detail I have not seen elsewhere. Each year the US Super Bowl generates a huge amount of gear in advance of the game's result. The losing side gear cannot be sold in the US due to NFL rules, so it enters this trade.The other chapters may be interesting to some readers. One chapter discusses how cotton institutionalizes poverty, and the last chapter looks at ethics and describes some efforts at fair trade and related concepts, and how they play out.

An excellent and well-researched, well-written work. If it is more academic than popular in orientation (or if readers do not know the definition of "system of provision"), that is not the fault of the author.

The title poses something you don’t actually find in the book and it misses a big point- at least in the United States, Americans receive a tax benefit when they donate clothes so there is a tax incentive to donate a lot of clothes.

In keeping with the previous review, I was one of the readers who was put to sleep with unnecessary out-of-touch vocabulary. The most used term, system of provision, is never defined, and is used ad nauseam, often several times per page. I read the book to learn more about the flow of second-hand clothing because that is what I buy for 95% of my clothes. I did not expect to read many quotes from Marx, and have capitalism demonized as the root of all evil. Brooks contradicts himself when stating capitalism is the cause of poverty, yet bringing out other points that lead to poverty also. I often wondered if he did not wish we all were communists and then everybody and everything would be equal. An economic system is only bad because people's hearts can be bad; led by greed, pride, corruption, envy and other traits common to man. I was very glad to finally slog my way to the end of this book, and I would not recommend it to anyone. (P.S. Mr. Brooks, I do not demonize or envy the rich in my country, America. I am very thankful that they pay an overwhelming percentage of our taxes, so that nearly 50% of our country, including the poor, do not have to.)

Excelente contenido, altamente recomendado

Very well-written, lots of information about the fashion industry, fast fashion and how Third World countries are affected by the Fast Fashion industry. People already know about the low waged and poor conditions in Pakistan and Bangladesh....what is less well-known is the effect of the industry on various African nations Brooks also suggest solutions to the problem, and there is a helpful list of Further Reading.

I always enjoy object biographies. This was well researched and written, with some really useful insights on redistribution. Will be drawing on it in teaching the circular economy to marketing undergrads studying 'routes to market'. Duly ordered for the university library!

Really informative book on the cost of the fashion and textiles industry. It focuses more on the political side of the industry and charities/donation bank which I was not expecting but at the same time found very interesting. Great eye opener for anyone regardless of if your into fashion or not!

There's a lot things I wasn't aware of and this was an eye-opener. It was a lot of information and facts to take in but it's worth reading.Packaged safely and arrived on time.