From Publishers Weekly
These insights from former Glamour and Mademoiselle editor Lee will last longer than the fleeting women's and men's fashion trends she explores. Her work scrutinizes the co-conspirators who make up a $200-billion business-designers, manufacturers, the fashion press, garment workers, unions, retail outlets and, ultimately, consumers-and she spares no one. After an introduction to "The Fashion Victim's Ten Commandments" (including "thou shalt pay more to appear poor" and "thou shalt be a walking billboard") and a brief review of the history of Western clothing styles, Lee identifies key trends in today's fashion culture. Trends are quickly born in couture and extend to the mass market through manufacturing innovation. But they're declared dead as soon as they reach Kmart and other chains that offer essentially the same clothing at a fraction of the cost. Still, while the price tag may be low, there are high costs, including the exploitation of garment workers; damaging of the environment by manufacturing; criminal networks caused by mob infiltration of unions; and the problem of women striving for unattainable bodies to fit into clothes designed for professional models. Lee's casual tone-she frequently refers to what the Fashion Victim (who may or may not be the reader) would do in a given situation-belies the seriousness of her findings, but her informal prose doesn't make the book any less convincing of the problems associated with being a slave to fashion.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
With a fire akin to that demonstrated in Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring (1900), former magazine editor Lee sets off to debunk the follies and foibles of fashion. Along the way, the mirror she holds up reflects the reader--and her (mostly female) readers and their obsession with fashion. Many recent media headlines become the major discussion points: the homogeneity of chain retailers and its cultural impact; the influence of news coverage; the "be thin" compulsion; sweatshop issues; high-fashion pain; to fur or not, among other topics. Certain statistics will amaze readers, including the fact that 85 percent of "real furry" pelts come from farmed animals. What's more, some of her soliloquies (and occasional conversations) are quite sad; a discourse on magazine photographs underscores the mental conflict and anguish many readers undergo when viewing and comparing almost anorexic fashion models. By no means does she intend her research to condemn the industry; rather, she hopes it will spark a higher awareness among "fashion victims" so they can determine the industry's influence on themselves--and not vice versa.
Barbara JacobsCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
