Reviewed in the Irish Times

Where Am I Wearing? continues to (not) win the hearts and minds of Europeans.

Bridget Hourican, a freelancer for the Irish Times, reviewed WAIW?

Her headline: This guide for the ethical clothes shopper is a bit ragged at the seams

Unlike the FT’s review, hers was thoughtful and seemed to connect with the book. She writes, “Timmerman puts faces on the garment industry. This needs doing and he has the warmth, compassion and interest in other cultures to do it.”

But overall she was hoping for a guide to ethical shopping, and WAIW? is not what she had hoped:

An interest in people is nice but can’t replace interest in textiles. At one factory three men examine his underwear. “They pull them, stretch them, rub the fabric between their fingers, examine seams, hold them up to the light, pretty much everything but smell them.” That’s the kind of obsession Timmerman needs. He should spool exhaustively through yarn, thread count, seams, zips, stone-washing and hemming so that we never look at our T-shirts in the same way again.

For the record, I have no interest in writing a book about thread counts and seams. My garments interest me far less than the people who make them. But I’m excited to have been reviewed in another major European newspaper.

In fact, I had an email this morning from Ireland’s Sean Moncreiff show. I’m going to be on the show tomorrow. More proof, that there’s no such thing as a bad review.

 
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Eva says:

“He should spool exhaustively through yarn, thread count, seams, zips, stone-washing and hemming so that we never look at our T-shirts in the same way again.”

I. would. not. read. that. book.

It’s nice that you’re getting the big-time press, but I wish more of them would realize that it wasn’t supposed to be a textbook… The few negatives you’ve gotten seem to come from skewed expectations.

Kelsey says:

Yep, that sounds pretty boring to me. I’ve had a lot of questions about the factories and the people that make our clothes, but not a single one about thread count.

Still, the reviewer hoped the book would be something else, she gave her reasons why, and I’m cool with that. At least it wasn’t a hatchet job where the reviewer didn’t even read the darn thing.

Jenn says:

But why can’t the reviewers read the book for what it is? They keep missing the point that you’re trying to make. But at least she did write a thoughtful review.

Let your voice be heard!

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