Where am I Wearing?: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes

Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes (2008) by American author Kelsey Timmerman charts the author’s global quest to trace the origins of his clothes, from Honduras to Bangladesh and Cambodia to China. Through his travels, Timmerman explores the working conditions, lives, and aspirations of the people who make clothing, shedding light on the often-overlooked human element behind the global apparel industry. The book is a contribution to travel literature and investigative journalism, merging personal narrative with in-depth reporting. It has been well received for its engaging narrative and approach to the complex issues of globalization, ethics in the fashion industry, and consumer responsibility, and it contributes to ongoing discussions about sustainable and ethical consumer practices. 

Where Am I Wearing? was first published in 2008. This guide refers to the 2012 revised e-book published by John Wiley & Sons. The additional content in this version updates readers on the lives of the garment workers since Timmerman first met them.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide briefly mention death by suicide.

Summary

Kelsey Timmerman argues that most people are ignorant about the origins of their clothes. Consequently, in 2007, he embarked on a quest to become a more engaged consumer. He decided to travel around the world, visiting the locations where his favorite clothes were manufactured and meeting the people who made them. 

In discussing the globalization of the American garment trade, Timmerman describes the “race to the bottom” (8), whereby developing countries compete to produce the cheapest garments. Consequently, big brands do not want customers to think too deeply about how or where their products are made, thereby encouraging a distance between the producer and the consumer. Timmerman states that he now cares about where his clothes are from because he has met the workers who made them. 

First, Timmerman describes his visit to Honduras, where his T-shirt was manufactured. After being denied entry into the factory, he talks to a 25-year-old garment worker named Amilcar. The author takes off his T-shirt and gives it to Amilcar, and they take their photograph together. However, he fails to ask Amilcar about his standard of life—a mistake he later regrets.

Next, Timmerman travels to Bangladesh to find the makers of his favorite underwear. He meets with corporate resistance when trying to locate the factory where his boxers were made and enlists the help of a local businessman, Dalton. Dalton gains Timmerman access to several factories by claiming that Timmerman is a wealthy American buyer. In one factory, conditions are better than expected. However, in another, Timmerman sees teenagers at work and learns that some of the workers have suffered life-changing injuries. Dalton assures him that the boys would be begging or working in an even more dangerous environment if they were not employed as garment workers. Timmerman concludes that boycotting child labor absolves American guilt while ignoring its financial necessity in the world’s poorest nations. 

Timmerman meets a single mother named Arifa, who lives in a cramped room with her children. As a garment worker, she earns typically $6 for 60 hours of work per week. The pay is at the subsistence level at best, and workers have no opportunity to improve the quality of their lives. However, Timmerman highlights the work of Bibi Russell and Muhammed Yunus, who have invested in schemes to help Bangladeshi citizens escape the cycle of poverty. Russell, a former supermodel, helped weavers sell their products to a global market. Yunus formed the Grameen Bank, offering loans to Bangladeshis, which allowed them to start their own businesses. 

Later, Timmerman points out that although blue jeans are considered an integral part of American identity, they are made overseas. The last Levi’s factory in the United States closed in 2004. He travels to Cambodia searching for the makers of his Levi’s jeans. He visits Nari and Ai, who work at a Levi’s factory and share a 96-square-foot room with six other young women. Four of them sleep on the bed, and four sleep on the floor. Their wages range from $45 to $70 a week. Nari and Ai are from rural villages and support their families by sending money home. They assert that they do not want Americans to boycott Levi’s since they need their jobs. 

Timmerman concludes that the working conditions at the factory he visits are the standard he would expect in the United States. Organizations like Oxfam and the United Nations Development Fund for Women teach the workers their rights. Workers’ unions also exist in Cambodia, and the International Labor Organization inspects factories to ensure that they do not use exploitative labor practices. This collaboration guarantees brands that the manufacturing process is “sweatshop-free.” 

Timmerman visits the Phnom Penh city dump, where the poorest Cambodians live in shacks and earn less than $1 a day by scavenging. Timmerman reflects that the children and adults working at the dump would be lucky to become garment workers like Nari and Ai. 

Timmerman’s Teva flip-flops were made in China for the company Deckers Outdoor. He travels to Guangzhou, China, where he is denied access to the factory. Timmerman meets married garment workers Zhu Chun and Dewan, who make Teva flip-flops. They live in a windowless one-room apartment, while their 13-year-old son, Li Xin, lives with his grandfather in a village 30 hours away by train. It has been three years since they have seen their son. Zhu Chun and Dewan are paid $140-$225 per month. They initially claim that they work a maximum 12-hour day but eventually admit to working between 80 and 100 hours over a seven-day week. The couple is often forced to work unpaid overtime to keep their jobs. The author concludes that China is winning “the race to the bottom,” as it has a vast supply of workers who lack democratic human rights. 

Timmerman then visits the factory in Perry, New York, where his favorite shorts were made. He is greeted enthusiastically by the president and staff of the American Classic Outfitters factory, which has an ongoing contract with Adidas. While the production techniques are similar to those of the overseas factories he visited, the workers are visibly happier and earn more in a day than Arifa, Nari, and Ai make in a month. Timmerman meets Debbie, who worked on his favorite shorts 16 years earlier.

In November 2011, Timmerman returns to Honduras and meets Amilcar’s mother, girlfriend, and children. He learns that, shortly after they first met, Amilcar made the dangerous 2,000-mile journey from Honduras to the United States, entering the country as an undocumented immigrant. Returning to the United States, Timmerman meets Amilcar and his pregnant American wife, Mayra, in California. Amilcar reveals that he has had various jobs since arriving in the country, which have paid for the construction of the house in Honduras where his daughters now live with his mother. He was saved from deportation by marrying Mayra but lost his job. Now, he lives on his disability check and his earnings as a mobile shoe salesman. 

The book concludes by encouraging readers to become more engaged consumers. Timmerman argues that wealthy societies like the United States have a responsibility to help less privileged people in developing nations. The author calls for companies to be more transparent about their manufacturing processes and asserts the need for a labeling system that enables consumers to see whether fairly treated workers have made their garments.