488: Maxine Bédat, part 1: Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About Fashion’s Sustainability (or lack thereof)
Maxine’s book, Unraveled: The Life and Death of a Garment, traces how a pair of jeans comes into existence from it’s raw beginnings and where it ends up at the end of its life. The book has been covered in the top levels of fashion media, for example
- Elle: Maxine Bédat Unravels The Lies of Greenwashing
- Vogue: Maxine Bédat Urges the Fashion Industry to Make a Change Now, Not in 2030
- Financial Times: Unraveled by Maxine Bédat—cutting the cloth
In our conversation, she shares the story behind the book: her history and motivation to write it, the story of her visiting people and places actually doing the work, the shocking sights the industry doesn’t want us to know about. As she puts it, “the chemical industry is the fashion industry. The oil industry is the fashion industry.”
You might think, “I don’t want to learn these things. I just want to enjoy my clothes without thinking about them.” You’ll feel the opposite when you hear. You’ll wish you’d learned earlier. You’ll want to tell people what you learn. You’ll shop and dress differently, more mindfully.