First published 2007
Journalist Rachel Louise Snyder follows the global supply chain that creates a single pair of jeans. She travels from cotton fields in Azerbaijan to garment factories in Cambodia, meeting the workers whose labor shapes the clothes we wear. Snyder interviews cotton pickers, seamstresses, denim manufacturers in Italy, and fashion designers in New York City. She examines the treaties and trade agreements that govern this multi-billion-dollar industry. The book explores questions of worker equity, factory conditions, and corporate responsibility through individual stories rather than abstract analysis. Snyder writes with humor and accessibility about a complex economic system. Her reporting reveals the environmental and political forces that operate behind simple clothing labels. The book offers readers a human perspective on twenty-first-century global commerce.
Genres: business, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, journalism, fashion
Vibes: accessible, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: human-perspective, investigative-journalism
Setting: Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Italy, New York City
Period: 21st-century
352 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company