Toxic Fashion — A ‘Between the Lines’ Author Q&A

 

BookShelf: Toxic Fashion — A ‘Between the Lines’ Author Q&A

For the latest edition of our occasional BookShelf Q&A series, “Between the Lines,” SEJournal gets some thoughts from author Alden Wicker about her book, “To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion is Making Us Sick — and How We Can Fight Back” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), winner of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ 2024 Rachel Carson Environmental Book Award. Wicker writes about healthy fashion and homes for her platform, EcoCult (now on Substack), and contributes to publications such as The New York Times, the BBC, Wired, Vox and Vogue. She recently joined the Vermont Center for Ecostudies as its communications director.

The author.

SEJournal: How did you get your winning idea?

Alden Wicker: In 2019, I had been writing about sustainable fashion for almost a decade. A radio show called me, asking me to comment on a lawsuit Delta airline attendants had brought against Lands’ End, the maker of their uniforms. The attendants said their hair had fallen out, that they had swollen and crusty eyes, chemical burns, racing hearts and debilitating fatigue. I had never heard of fashion having toxic chemicals that could harm the wearer. So I decided to investigate further, and I uncovered a scandal that had been hidden from the world.

SEJournal: What was the biggest challenge in reporting for the book, and how did you solve that challenge?

Wicker: Very little research had been done on the substances used to manufacture, dye and finish clothing. I had a difficult time finding reputable researchers and unbiased experts to talk to me about this. Everyone seemed to be paid by the fashion or chemical industry in some way. But I kept calling and emailing until I found the handful of researchers, experts and advocates who were starting to discover this issue. A lot of the most compelling research in the book was less than five years old.

SEJournal: What most surprised you about your findings?

 

I was surprised at how common

and normal toxic fashion has

been for hundreds of years.

 

Wicker: When I first pitched the book idea, I was a little worried that I wouldn't find enough evidence to be convincing. I thought there would be a couple of historical anecdotes, a few tests and a couple of lawsuits. But I was surprised at how common and normal toxic fashion has been for hundreds of years. The evidence was overwhelming. It's just that no one had put it all together.

SEJournal: How did you decide to tell this story and why?

Wicker: The book is structured in a series of chapters that open with one person's harrowing health experience, from an arsenic-poisoned floral crown maker in Victorian England to a flight attendant who passed away in modern San Francisco. Using each narrative as illustration, I pull on research and other evidence to explain what happened and why.

SEJournal: Does the issue covered in your book have a disproportional impact on people of low income, or people with a particular ethnic or racial background? What efforts, if any, did you make to include perspectives of people who may feel that journalists have left them out of public conversation over the years?

 

The evidence shows that people

of all socioeconomic and ethnic

backgrounds are currently

equally affected by toxic fashion.

 

Wicker: In the West, the evidence shows that people of all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds are currently equally affected by toxic fashion. However, I used a significant portion of my advance to travel to India to visit dye houses and interview garment workers about their own health struggles being exposed to toxic fashion products and polluted wastewater.

SEJournal: What would you do differently now, if anything, in reporting or telling the story and why?

Wicker: I would probably make the book a little more succinct. I always write long, and the book is pretty thick! I also spent way too much time reporting out some history of toxic fashion that I couldn't use in the book.

SEJournal: What lessons have you learned from your project?

Wicker: That fact-checking is worth the cost. Even though I had to shoulder it myself, I'm grateful that I did so, because an error would have undermined the message of the book, when it was already at risk of being dismissed as a "fashion thing" or a fearmongering wellness book.

SEJournal: What practical advice would you give to other reporters pursuing similar projects, including any specific techniques or tools you used and could tell us more about?

Wicker: A year to write the book was both very long and very short. I worked every day for a few hours, even when I wasn't sure what I needed to do next. Slow and steady meant I hit my deadline without burning myself out.

SEJournal: Could you characterize the resources that went into producing your prizewinning reporting (estimated costs, i.e., legal, travel or other; or estimated hours spent by the team to produce)? Did you receive any grants or fellowships to support it?

Wicker: I used my entire first advance payment to travel to India ($3,000), pay for fact-checking ($10,000) and get clothing tested ($10,000). I had to live on my other freelance work and website revenue while I worked on the book.

SEJournal: Is there anything else you would like to share about this project or environmental journalism that wasn’t captured above?

Wicker: I'm so glad I waited to write this book until I had an idea I was excited about. I had been asked to write a simple book about sustainable fashion, but I wasn't inspired. This book stretched my capacities and got me excited. It feels like a unique and important contribution.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 37. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.