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Book review: Sundressed, Lucianne Tonti

Sustainable fashion and why it matters where our clothes come from.

Do you ever stop to think about just what’s gone into producing your clothes?

Fashion insider Lucianne Tonti has and the book she’s produced as a result is a tribute to wearing quality items, and an in-depth look at what it takes to produce these pieces. It’s also an exploration of the effect fast fashion is having on the environment and a forward look at how the industry can change for the better.

The premise of Tonti’s book is that regenerative agriculture could truly transform the fashion industry for the better, but it will be no easy task.

In opening the book, Tonti provides almost a love letter to the glorious feeling that wearing true quality garments can provide. Outlining her background in the fashion world, along with recounting moments she felt ready to take on the world due to the items she was wearing, it’s the perfect way to begin the deep dive into the different sectors of the fashion industry.

From here, the reader is taken on a journey around the world, exploring textile production in various parts of the globe, and how it can be made more sustainable.

From the cotton fields of Australia to silk production in rural China, hemp growing in the United States and cashmere goats running along the rangelands in Mongolia, it is astonishing to learn just what it takes to produce a shirt or pants.

It’s also heartening to learn about the people who are driving the move towards sustainable fashion. 

But Tonti shows there are major challenges ahead, from building up manufacturing capacity in areas where it has been lost, including the United States, to convincing consumers that high prices for sustainably sourced silk, and other top quality items, are worth the investment.

This extensively researched book really makes you think about the effect your clothing choices have on the environment, and that maybe saving up your pennies to buy a truly quality item really is the best choice.

Read: Exhibition review: Vivienne Binns: On and through the Surface

It also offers an interesting look behind the curtain of the fashion industry and just how much it takes out of our planet, and outlines how clothing can give back to the earth and allow us to be sundressed.

Sundressed by Lucianne Tonti
Publisher: Black Inc.
ISBN: 9781760643164
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288pp
Release date: 19 July 2022
RRP: $32.99

Paula Thompson is a journalist who has written for The Advertiser, SA Weekend and the Stock Journal newspapers. She is now freelancing