Can the Love of Menswear Be Justified in a Time of Global Crisis?

The various tubes and vessels that everyone slides their body parts into everyday—clothes—are broadly considered to be, at best, the domain of the frivolous and unserious—at worst, the preoccupation of the narcissist. But even a passing reflection on the facts reveals this popular notion to be absurd. Clothes have enabled human beings to colonize virtually all of the Earth. Homo sapiens would have remained an exclusively tropical species had it not figured out how to clad its heat-dissipating skin in the heat-trapping skins and furs of other animals or the fibers of plants. For those of us who live in cold and wet climates, clothes are a survival necessity. Clothes also represent a nontrivial part of most people’s annual budget and, more importantly, daily life—whether they admit it or not—given that we are all surrounded by them in the most literal way possible. More consequentially, textile production and distribution are major sources of waste and pollution. Clothes manufacturing contributes to widespread labor abuses all over the world. Anyone who wears clothes is tied up in this web of human exploitation and environmental degradation. Read more at Current Affairs.