Clothing Poverty by Andrew Brooks Summary

Clothing Poverty exposes the global inequalities perpetuated by fast fashion and second-hand clothing trade. By tracing a pair of jeans from cotton fields to landfills, Andrew Brooks reveals how supply chains concentrate profits in wealthy nations while exploiting labor and destabilizing economies in the Global South. The book critiques charity recycling programs and fast fashion’s environmental toll, linking consumer habits to systemic poverty.

This book is essential for socially conscious consumers, sustainability advocates, and students of globalization or economics. Its blend of investigative journalism and academic rigor appeals to readers interested in ethical fashion, supply chain transparency, or post-colonial trade dynamics. Policymakers and NGO workers will gain insights into unintended consequences of aid programs.

Yes—Brooks combines visceral storytelling with hard data to reframe everyday clothing as a lens for understanding global inequality. The updated edition includes recent trends like ethical fashion lines, making it a timely critique of greenwashing. Critics praise its accessibility despite covering complex economic systems.

The book breaks the journey into five stages:

• Cotton farming: Exploitative labor in Mali and India
• Manufacturing: Low-wage factories in China and Bangladesh
• Retail: Markups in Global North markets
• Donation: Charities selling unsold stock to traders
• Second-hand markets: African vendors reselling oversized, low-quality imports

Only 25% of donated clothes reach charity shops—the rest are sold to for-profit exporters. Brooks argues this undermines African textile industries by flooding markets with cheap imports. Organizations like Oxfam profit from licensing charity-branded collection bins, while local manufacturers collapse under competition.

Fast fashion brands like Zara rely on:

• Speed: 2-week design-to-retail cycles encouraging overconsumption
• Waste: 92 million tons of annual textile landfill waste
• Wage suppression: Garment workers earning <$3/day in Bangladesh
  This model concentrates 80% of profits in Global North corporations while externalizing environmental costs.

Brooks highlights:

• Vivienne Westwood’s “Buy Less, Choose Well” campaigns
• TOMS Shoes’ problematic aid model
• Mozambican capulana fabric revitalization efforts
  He argues systemic change requires policy reforms over individual consumer shifts.

Key criticisms include:

• Smuggling networks: Nigerian traders dodging import bans
• Environmental harm: Burning unsellable synthetic fabrics
• Cultural erosion: Traditional textiles replaced by Western castoffs
  Brooks shows how “recycling” often means exporting waste under humanitarian guises.

• Mozambique’s Xipamanine Market: Vendors reselling moldy donations
• Chinese factory towns: Toxic dye runoff poisoning rivers
• London vintage stores: Curating luxury from Global South discards
  These cases expose fashion’s spatial inequalities.

As a King’s College London geographer, Brooks combines 15 years of fieldwork with trade data analysis. His expertise in African development and supply chain economics grounds the narrative, while media contributions (BBC, The Guardian) ensure public engagement.

Despite sustainability pledges, fast fashion emissions grew 20% since 2020. Brooks’ warnings about recycling myths and greenwashing remain urgent as brands like Shein dominate ultra-fast fashion. The book helps decode ESG reports and carbon offset claims.

While Pietra Rivoli’s classic focuses on free trade’s winners, Brooks emphasizes losers—exploited workers, bankrupt tailors, and nations bearing textile waste. Both use garment journeys as narrative devices, but Clothing Poverty adopts a sharper critique of capitalism.