Loved Clothes Last, written by Fashion Revolution co-founder Orsola de Castro is a love letter to multiple ways of sustainable fashion, thrifting, mending, treasuring, repairing, rescuing, sharing and respecting. As the author describes herself, this is not a «how-to» book but a «why-to» and works like a practical guide on how to better take care of the clothes in your closet as well as a warning against overconsumption. She writes, «the fate of cheap clothing is marked as soon as it leaves the factory, and it’s worthy of an unedited Grimm Brothers fairytale: made in misery, bought in haste, worn for one night (if that) and then chucked in the bin.»

The book follows de Castro on a personal journey of discovering her love of fashion, becoming a fashion designer and discovering how damaging fast fashion and overconsumption are on the planet. She describes how she ended up co-founding Fashion Revolution, one of the biggest consumer-facing sustainable fashion movements, to help others understand and work to change the fashion industry. 

The book focuses on the positive impact consumers can have in changing the way we consume clothes. She believes that if we care for our clothes we will foster a deeper connection with what we wear and in turn reduce our consumption. We don’t have to give up clothes to be more sustainable, we just need to understand how they are made and how we can better take care of them. She covers the whole «lifecycle» of a garment, from where the fabric is sourced, how it’s made and what to do after you’ve bought it. For those of us that don’t know too much about the clothes hanging in our clothes, she’s included tips on how to read a wash tag, what to put in a basic sewing kit and how to mend by hand. She writes, «This book is a call to action to use our clothes—and the tools that make them last—as our armour, taking up mending as a revolutionary act. At this important juncture, we are between evolution and extinction, one road leading to ruin and one to redemption.» 

de Castro also offers many unique tips on how to «refashion» clothes, such as cutting tights to make socks and headbands and dying clothes with an avocado stone. The whole book is a creative and positive way of looking at an important issue without it being too «doom and gloom» Clothes are something that binds most of us together and de Castro showed us how we can all find inspiration in our closets before we get another t-shirt from Zara.