Sofi

Thanhauser

Writer & Artist

Teacher & Musician

Travels from: Brooklyn, NY

“Luminous… Thanhauser emphasizes the experience of workers, usually women, who are enmeshed in lucrative global industries linked to textiles and clothing…A knowledgeable and fascinating book…that bulges at the seams with finely spun descriptions of the people and places she encounters.” — The Economist

Sofi Thanhauser is a writer, artist, and musician, based in Brooklyn. She is the author of Worn: A People’s History of Clothing (Pantheon, January 2022). Her writing has appeared in the MIT Technology Review, American Craft, Vox, The Guardian, Observer Magazine, Dame, and LitHub, among other publications. She is a 2024 Climate Works Fellow, and she has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Yaddo, Macdowell, Ucross, VCCA, Jentel, and Millay.

She has appeared on the Articles of Interest Podcast, Al Jazeera English, WNYC, the Pre-Loved Podcast With Emily Stochl, BBC Radio 6, KERA Think, BBC Sounds, and AirTalk. She was the keynote speaker at both the Cannabis Research Conference at CSU Pueblo in Denver, CO, and at “Evolving Textiles Conference: Materializing the Future” at NC State University in Raleigh, NC. She has given talks at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ, at the Eastern Sociological Society 2018 Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, and at the Annual National Women’s Studies Convention in Atlanta, GA.

She teaches in the Writing Department at Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn. She is currently at work on her second nonfiction book, forthcoming from Riverhead Books.

Sofi's Featured Titles

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing

Pantheon |

January 25, 2022

Customs & Social Sciences

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A sweeping and captivatingly told history of clothing and the stuff it is made of—an unparalleled deep-dive into how everyday garments have transformed our lives, our societies, and our planet.

“We learn that, if we were a bit more curious about our clothes, they would offer us rich, interesting and often surprising insights into human history…a deep and sustained inquiry into the origins of what we wear, and what we have worn for the past 500 years.” —The Washington Post

In this panoramic social history, Sofi Thanhauser brilliantly tells five stories—Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool—about the clothes we wear and where they come from, illuminating our world in unexpected ways. She takes us from the opulent court of Louis XIV to the labor camps in modern-day Chinese-occupied Xinjiang. We see how textiles were once dyed with lichen, shells, bark, saffron, and beetles, displaying distinctive regional weaves and knits, and how the modern Western garment industry has refashioned our attire into the homogenous and disposable uniforms popularized by fast-fashion brands.

Thanhauser makes clear how the clothing industry has become one of the planet’s worst polluters and how it relies on chronically underpaid and exploited laborers. But she also shows us how micro-communities, textile companies, and clothing makers in every corner of the world are rediscovering ancestral and ethical methods for making what we wear.

Drawn from years of intensive research and reporting from around the world, and brimming with fascinating stories, Worn reveals to us that our clothing comes not just from the countries listed on the tags or ready-made from our factories. It comes, as well, from deep in our histories.

Creative Nonfiction, History & Biography, Journalism, Nonfiction, Science & Technology

Wearing History

What can we learn about history by simply looking closely at our clothing? The country of manufacture and fiber content are listed, but what about the deeper histories: of women’s work, colonization, technological advances, water, and climate? This talk helps provide a big history of clothing that will help connect us to global histories, and help envision where we, and clothing, can go next.

Research as a Dance

Researching a book-length work of non-fiction sometimes means walking long distances in the dark. This talk will explore the research process as an enlivening and frightening engagement with the unknown. It will place the field of contemporary non-fiction alongside other literary and cinematic projects and offer some useful strategies for blending rigor with playfulness and ease.

What is to be done?

This talk looks at some of the major questions that come up when we think about how to build a sustainable textile industry, based on lessons learned through history. It looks at the future of hemp production in the U.S., legislation efforts in Europe and the U.S., the work of unions in Bangladesh, and in small- production pratices in communities around the U.S and around the world.

“A project epic in the depth and scope of its research…Thanhauser’s thesis, one which she proves repeatedly, is that the story of fabric is “charged with political meaning”…Worn is both a historical examination, and a clarion call to wake up to the human rights abuses of the textile industry…leavened by the author’s passion for her subject, and her ability to weave its many strands together like a beautiful piece of fabric.” — Independent

“Thanhauser convincingly argues that getting dressed is a political act. Worn is also, unavoidably, about women: their place in the home and the value of their labour. It is an incredibly well-reported account of how fashion, far from being trivial, has shaped human history.” — The New Statesman

“Through the prism of five fabrics and five corresponding stories…Thanhauser lifts the veil on the ethics, or lack thereof, of the fashion industry.” — Departures

“In this delightful and fascinating book, Thanhauser…weaves a social history of clothing.” — The Globe and Mail

“Thanhauser’s approach to exposing a system gone so horribly wrong is to synthesise the existing literature, add fresh insights drawn from her own fieldwork, and deliver the findings in a richly evocative narrative powered, but never overwhelmed, by a sense of righteous anger…None of this is logistically or morally simple, and the great virtue of Thanhauser’s analysis is how alive she is to the difficulty of making these networks legible.” — The Guardian

Sofi’s Works