Sundressed
Natural Fabrics and the Future of Clothing
Lucianne Tonti’s Sundressed is a sustainable living book that reenvisions people’s relationships with their clothes.
In the age of mass production of cheap clothes, this book aims to reconnect people with the origins of what they wear. The result is a beautiful ode to the earth, the fibers it produces, and the people who cultivate and wear those fibers. It peeks behind buzzwords (sustainable, eco, and natural) to rediscover the true beauty of natural fibers, including cotton, wool, linen, and silk. And it reveals stark realities—like how much plastic from clothes ends up in the water, impacting the animals who live there.
Traveling a global path from farm to garment, the book introduces both luxury designers and earthy farmers. It encourages being selective about clothes, taking better care of them, and wearing them for the long haul—even as long as a decade. While this necessitates decreasing “our appetite for newness,” the approach results in beauty, quality, and comfort that fast fashion cannot match.
The book introduces transformative concepts like regenerative agriculture, which moves beyond chemical-free organic to improve the ecosystem. Each concept is explained succinctly, showing its depth and value. These ideas showcase the problem with the status quo and provide wisdom and hope for a solution.
The prose is rich and compelling. It blends bits of personal narrative—such as discussing beloved garments—with broader stories of fiber and textile production and the cultures and artisans behind what people wear. The voice is smooth and inviting, devoid of judgment and full of wonder, making it both informative and delightful to read. The book has elegant diction and imagery, as of “a shirt made of flowers,” that infuse its ideas with beauty and purpose.
Sundressed is a sustainable living guide with a heart for people and the earth.
Reviewed by
Melissa Wuske
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
