The Books That Sparked a Movement to Reform Fashion

Elizabeth L. Cline is a pioneering author, researcher, and award-winning journalist whose work has transformed how the world understands fashion, sustainability, and labor rights. Her critically acclaimed books, Overdressed and The Conscious Closet, ignited a global reckoning with fast fashion and helped mainstream the movement for conscious consumption and global justice in the apparel industry.

Cline’s influence spans from classrooms to Capitol Hill. She is a widely recognized expert and regular media commentator on fashion, labor, and sustainability. She has been invited to share her insights on NBC Nightly News, NPR’s Fresh Air, and Hulu’s IMPACT x Nightline, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Forbes, among other outlets. She has played a leading role in shaping public policy, contributing to campaigns that have changed laws and introduced new rules to protect garment workers in California, New York, and the U.S. Congress.

At Columbia University, Cline teaches the next generation of sustainability leaders to design systems that are equitable, resilient, and transparent. As a trusted researcher and consultant to NGOs, she specializes in labor rights, climate policy, and strategic ESG communications and research.

[Read her full bio here.]

RESEARCH & CONSULTING

U.S. Sustainable Agriculture: Laws, Policies, and Programs (2025)

Produced on behalf of the U.S. Sustainability Alliance, Elizabeth L. Cline served as a writer and researcher on this report, which outlines key U.S. laws and programs that promote sustainable agriculture and protect biodiversity, forests, and farmland.

Towards a Collective Approach: Rethinking Fashion’s Doomed Climate Strategy (2023)

Co-authored and led by Elizabeth L. Cline as lead researcher, this report from the Transformers Foundation investigates the fashion industry's climate strategies through the lens of supplier perspectives. It highlights a disconnect between science-based targets and the realities of feasibility, equity, and financing—calling for a more inclusive and collaborative approach to decarbonization.

Cotton: A Case Study in Misinformation (2021)

Co-authored by Elizabeth L. Cline, this report from the Transformers Foundation exposes common myths about cotton’s environmental impact and how misinformation spreads in the fashion industry. It calls for more accurate, transparent, and responsible sustainability claims and storytelling across journalism, academia, and corporate communications.

ARTICLES

will the circular economy save the planet?

Like other utopian environmental theories before it, the circular economy promises to decouple economic growth from our endless consumption of stuff, but are its proponents really offering a planet-saving paradigm shift, or just another version of something we've tried and failed at for decades? Read Elizabeth’s feature in Sierra Magazine here.

The controversy over cotton

When it comes to organic cotton in the U.S., the numbers don’t add up. Here there is the biggest demand for the sustainable fiber and yet the lowest levels of production. It’s why your T-shirt likely comes from overseas, where experts say organic claims aren’t always legitimate. Few organic farmers are pulling it off, save for a small group in West Texas. Read here.

The POWER OF #PAYUP

In March of 2020, major clothing brands and retailers made the catastrophic and unprecedented decision to cancel completed orders without payment to their factories worldwide worth $40 billion, triggering a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. A grassroots movement called the #PayUp movement, which Cline helped to launch, stopped the biggest heist in fashion’s modern history. And it’s just getting started. Read here.