Top 5 Books to Help Learn About Slow Fashion
On the blog today, Eloise Webb from Oxwash, shares her top 5 reads to learn more about the fashion industry, the slow fashion movement, and how we can change our shopping habits. Perfect if you’re looking to make green changes to your life in 2022. >>
Sustainable fashion is becoming a necessary focus in our lives. With the growth of hashtags such as #slowfashion or #thanksitsrented on socials, many are turning to their own wardrobes to ask themselves the question, ‘how can I dress more sustainably?’
Here are our top five books to help you learn about how to shop more sustainability and change your fashion buying habits. It’s possible to not only look great, but feel great about your wardrobe choices.
1. How To Break Up With Fast Fashion: A guilt-free guide to changing the way you shop – for good – Lauren Bravo
About the Author – @laurenbravo
Lauren Bravo is a freelance journalist who has written for Grazia, The Telegraph, Refinery29UK, Stylist, Cosmopolitan, Time Out, and more. Her main topics include fashion, popular culture, food, travel and feminism, and she has been writing about fashion since 2009.
About the Book
How To Break Up With Fast Fashion will change your mindset about your wardrobe and embrace more sustainable ways of shopping – from charity shopping to clothes swaps. Full of realistic advice, Lauren will offer guidance on how to repair, recycle and give your unloved items a new lease of life without compromising on style.
Who is it for?
This book is for seeking the fundamentals: What is slow fashion, and what small changes can I make to my lifestyle today.
Order from Mostly Books in Abingdon
2. A Life Less Throwaway – Tara Button
About the Author – @tara_button
Tara received a Le Creuset cast iron pot for her birthday, the realisation that she would never need to buy another struck. It was a well-made, solid product covered by a lifetime warranty: a buy-for-life item. Tara was inspired to create BuyMeOnce: the destination store to find the longest-lasting products on the planet.
About the Book
New and shiny seems to be our society’s idea of a good deal. This belief has driven consumption upward at a drastic rate over the last 60 years, damaging the environment at the same time. In this book, Tara expands on how to live by her mantra of buying to last, and champions a lifestyle called ‘mindful curation’. In this book Tara gives 10 steps to build habits that celebrate what lasts.
Who is it for?
This book is for anyone struggling with throw-away guilt. We know it’s harmful to the environment, and life doesn’t need to be this way.
3. Loved Clothes Last – Orsola de Castro
About the Author – @OrsoladeCastro
Orsola de Castro has pioneered a global movement calling for change in the fashion industry. She is an Associate Lecturer at UAL, Visiting Fellow at CSM and a leading speaker on fashion and sustainability. She has partnered with individuals like Lily Cole, StellaMcCartney, Lauren Laverne and Emma Watson at Fashion Revolution, a Global Campaign she founded in 2013.
About the Book
Businesses such as fashion rental services and pre-loved marketplaces are on the rise, with the increased desire for consumers to get their hands on an old ‘new’ outfit. However, the most sustainable items are the ones we already own.
This book will help you fall back in love with those items again. The book will teach you to scrutinise your shopping habits and make more sustainable purchases. She will inspire you to buy better, care more and reduce your carbon footprint by making your loved clothes last longer.
Who is it for?
This book is for those looking for a challenge. If you’re looking to equip yourself with ways to mend, rewear and breathe new life into your wardrobe, achieving a more sustainable lifestyle, this is the book for you.
Order from Mostly Books in Abingdon
4. Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes – Dana Thomas
About the Author – @DanaThomasParis
Dana is a Paris based fashion journalist. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times Style section and has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and more. She is a bestselling author, and Fashionopolis is her third book.
About the Book
Dana accounts her world travels and how she discovered the visionary designers and companies who are using more traditional methods to produce better fashion.
From printing 3-D clothes, clean denim processing, smart manufacturing, hyperlocalism, fabric recycling—even lab-grown materials. This book explores the innovation side of fashion’s future at a manufacturing level.
Who is it for?
Best for someone who has started their fashion journey by looking at their own shopping habits, and now looking to learn more about the industry as whole.
Order from Mostly Books in Abingdon
5. Mend it, Wear it, Love it!: Stitch Your Way to a Sustainable Wardrobe – Zoe Edwards
About the Author – @SozoBlog
Zoe is passionate about sewing, reusing materials and debunking fast fashion. She documents this on her sewing blog. Having worked as a dressmaker and sewing teacher she is now on a mission to inspire and guide others in making/remaking their own clothing.
About the Book
She offers guidance on how to resalvage clothing that would otherwise be destined for the landfill. With this book, you can avoid the need to take a bag of clothes to your local recycling bank and feel the anxiety of the unknown before you’ve dropped it into the abyss.
In this book, Zoe offers a step-by-step illustrated guide to common stitch and repair techniques. ‘Mend it, Wear it, Love it’ has everything you need to mend and care for your clothes, and stitch your way to a more sustainable wardrobe.
Who is it for?
You are looking to learn how to reuse and repurpose your garments.
Order from Mostly Books in Abingdon
Sustainability at Oxwash
If you’re wondering how you can help save water, CO2 and prevent plastic pollution through your laundry practices, then why not try Oxwash? Our space-age technology filters up to 1,000,000 tiny plastic microfibers per KG of washing, preventing this from entering our waterways. If you’re looking for ways to introduce sustainability at home, start here!
Try Oxwash Today
