T Shirt — Ava Guglielmi

Part 3 of the book discusses what happens after the shirt is made and makes it way back to America, and part 4 is about the life of a t shirt once it is no longer worn by American consumers. One of the things that really stood out to me was all the rules about how to get clothing to fall under the duty-free category of imports. The rules are so specific, it’s insane. I have no idea how they came up with these or the logic behind it. I was also surprised to hear that politicians routinely make promises that they don’t intent to keep when it comes to the textile industry. I know with politicians lying is a tactic used often, but the fact that it’s so common place is wild.

Part 4 really has me thinking about just how much Americans over-consume when it comes to fashion. We donate so many clothes that there aren’t even enough people in the US to buy it all, so we have to ship it overseas. One interesting thing to me was that people in Africa prefer the clothing that is wrinkly and musty, because it means it was worn a lot and was liked by the previous owner. If the clothes are too clean or smell nice, they get passed over. This is definitely the opposite of what I would expect.