American Flannel: How a Band of Entrepreneurs Are Bringing the Art and Business of Making Clothes Back Home

"I can confidently say this will be one of my favorite books of 2024." --Stephen King, bestselling author (and onetime millworker)

"American Flannel is a wonderful book--surprising, entertaining, vivid and personal, but also enlightening on the largest questions of America's economic and social future." --James Fallows, co-author of Our Towns

The little-engine-that-could story of how a band of scrappy entrepreneurs are reviving the enterprise of manufacturing clothing in the United States.

For decades, clothing manufacture was a pillar of U.S. industry. But beginning in the 1980s, Americans went from wearing 70 percent domestic-made apparel to almost none. Even the very symbol of American freedom and style--blue jeans--got outsourced. With offshoring, the nation lost not only millions of jobs but also crucial expertise and artistry.

Dismayed by shoddy imported "fast fashion"--and unable to stop dreaming of re-creating a favorite shirt from his youth--Bayard Winthrop set out to build a new company, American Giant, that would swim against this trend. New York Times reporter Steven Kurutz, in turn, began to follow Winthrop's journey. He discovered other trailblazers as well, from the "Sock Queen of Alabama" to a pair of father-son shoemakers and a men's style blogger who almost single-handedly drove a campaign to make "Made in the USA" cool. Eye-opening and inspiring, American Flannel is the story of how a band of visionaries and makers are building a new supply chain on the skeleton of the old and wedding old-fashioned craftsmanship to cutting-edge technology and design to revive an essential American dream.

Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 03/12/2024
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.91lbs
Size: 9.32h x 6.35w x 0.74d
ISBN: 9780593329610


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/22/2024
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2024

About the Author
Steven Kurutz has been a features reporter for The New York Times for more than a decade. His magazine article "Fruitland," about the music of Donnie and Joe Emerson, was adapted for the feature film Dreamin' Wild. He is also the author of "Like a Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of a Tribute Band." Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, he currently lives in New England with his family.