Selected by Emma Watson for her Ultimate Book List

Fashion is political. From the red carpets of the Met Gala to online fast fashion, the clothes we wear tell a story of exploitation, racism and inequality. In this revised and extensively updated version of her earlier book Stitched Up, Tansy E. Hoskins unpicks the threads of capitalist industry to reveal what lies behind the clothes we all wear.

Fashion brands entice us to consume more by manipulating us to feel ugly, poor and worthless, and these sentiments lines the pockets of billionaires. Workers in Bangladesh put their lives at risk in dangerous factories, animals are tortured and toxic chemicals are spread just to keep this season’s collections fresh.

However, we can change this. Moving between Karl Lagerfeld and Karl Marx, The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion goes beyond the arguments for ethical fashion and consumer responsibility showing that if we want to feel comfortable in our clothes, the need to reshape the system.