In the 2006 film versionofThe Devil Wears Prada, MirandaPriestly, played by Meryl Streep, scold her unattractive assistant forimagining that high fashion doesn’t affect her. Priestly explains how the deepblue color of the assistant’s sweater descended over the years from fashionshows to department stores and to the bargain bin in which the poor girldoubtless found her garment.
This top-down conceptionof the fashion business couldn’t be more out of date or at odds with feverishworld described inOverdressed,Elizabeth Cline’s three-yearindictmentof “fast fashion”. In the lastdecades or so, advances in technology have allowed mass-market labels such asZara, H&M, and Uniqlo to react to trends more quickly and anticipate demandmore precisely. Quicker turnarounds mean less wasted inventory, more frequentreleases, and more profit. Those labels encourage style-conscious consumers to see clothes as disposable——meant to lastonly a wash or two, although they don’t advertise that——and to renew theirwardrobe every few weeks. By offering on-trend items at dirt-cheap prices,Cline argues, these brands have hijacked fashion cycles, shaking an industrylong accustomed to a seasonal pace.
The victims of this revolution, of course, are notlimited to designers. For H&M to offer a $5.95 knit miniskirt in all its 2,300-plusstores around the world, it must rely on low-wage, overseas labor, order involumes that strain natural resources, and use massive amounts of harmfulchemicals.
Overdressed is the fashion world’s answer to consumer-activistbestsellers like Michael Pollan’sTheOmnivore’s Dilemma. “Mass-produced clothing, likefast food, fills a hunger and need, yet is non-durable, and wasteful,” Clineargues. Americans, she finds, buy roughly 20 billion garments a year——about 64items per person——and no matter how much they give away, this excess leads towaste.
Towards theend ofOverdressed, Cline introducedher ideal, a Brooklyn woman named Sarah Kate Beaumont, who since 2008 has madeall of her own clothes——and beautifully. But as Cline is the first to note, ittook Beaumont decades to perfect her craft; herexample can’t be knocked off.
Though severalfast-fashion companies have made efforts to curb their impact on labor and the environment——includingH&M, with its green Conscious Collection Line——Cline believes lasting changecan only be effected by the customer. She exhibits the idealism common to manyadvocates of sustainability, be it in food or in energy. Vanityis a constant; people will only start shopping more sustainably when they can’tafford not to.
21. Priestly criticizes her assistant for her
[A] poor bargaining skill.
[B] insensitivity to fashion.
[C] obsession with high fashion.
[D] lack of imagination.
22. According to Cline, mass-market labels urge consumersto
[A] combat unnecessary waste.
[B] shut out the feverish fashion world.
[C] resist the influence of advertisements.
[D] shop for theirgarments more frequently.
23. The word “indictment” (Line 3, Para.2) is closest inmeaning to
[A] accusation.
[B] enthusiasm.
[C] indifference.
[D] tolerance.
24. Which of the following can be inferred from the lastparagraph?
[A] Vanity has more often been found in idealists.
[B] The fast-fashion industry ignores sustainability.
[C] People are more interested in unaffordable garments.
[D] Pricing is vital to environment-friendly purchasing.
25. What is the subject of the text?
[A] Satire on an extravagant lifestyle.
[B] Challenge to a high-fashion myth.
[C] Criticism of the fast-fashion industry.
[D] Exposure of a mass-market secret.
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