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Mar 2022
53m 55s

A people's history of clothing

RSA
About this episode

As our world has changed, the way we produce and wear clothes has changed with it. Industrialisation moved textile work out of everyday life and into factories, creating a complex, inscrutable mass clothing trade that moves faster than the planet can sustain. What has the changing story of clothes meant for the people who make and wear them, and for the world we all live in?

Writer and artist Sofi Thanhauser traces the history of our favourite textiles, examining how we went from making fabric for ourselves to relying on a clothing system that’s costing the earth whilst producing clothes of little value. Exploring the complexities of the modern market, she considers how our clothing habits should change to respect the boundaries of our planet, revive the art of making, and validate the rights of consumers and workers.

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