ABOUT ELIZABETH

Please contact Elizabeth at elizabeth.l.cline [AT] gmail

Elizabeth L. Cline is a renowned independent researcher, author, consultant, and educator specializing in the sustainability and labor rights of global supply chains, global development, and environmental policy. With over a decade of experience and a Master’s in Global Studies and International Relations, her work bridges independent research, policy analysis, communications, and public education to promote equity and accountability in global systems.

Cline is the founder of Cline Global Insights, a consultancy supporting NGOs, institutions, and campaigns with qualitative research, stakeholder engagement, strategic communications, and ESG analysis. Her clients include the Responsible Contracting Project, the United Nations Fashion Charter, the Transformers Foundation, and the U.S. Sustainability Alliance. She also teaches in Columbia University’s Sustainability Management Master’s Program (SUMA), where she leads Fashion Policy, a course on global environmental policy, and Consumerism and Sustainability.

Books

Cline is the author of two influential books that helped shape the global conversation on fashion and sustainability. Her debut, Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion (2012), is a groundbreaking investigation into the rise of fast fashion. Based on undercover reporting in Bangladesh and China, the book exposed the industry’s global labor and environmental abuses and anticipated the conditions that led to the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster. Widely credited with helping launch the movement to reform fast fashion, Overdressed is published in seven languages and taught in universities around the world.

Cline’s follow-up, The Conscious Closet: A Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good (2019), is a practical guide to aligning personal style with sustainability and values, praised for making ethical fashion accessible and actionable.

journalism and MEDIA

Elizabeth L. Cline began her career as a journalist and has nearly two decades of experience reporting on fashion, labor, gender, climate, and global development. Her early work laid the foundation for her later roles as an author, researcher, and policy advocate. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Vogue Business, Slate, Forbes, The New Yorker, Atmos, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The Nation, among others.

Cline is also a trusted media commentator and public speaker on sustainability, labor rights, and global supply chains. She has delivered lectures and keynotes at Yale, Berkeley, Columbia, and international industry events, and is frequently featured in outlets such as NPR, The New York Times, MSNBC, CBC News, Al Jazeera, Teen Vogue, and WWD. She is widely cited as an expert on fast fashion brands like Shein and the broader ethics of the apparel industry.

Her journalism background continues to inform her consulting and research practice, particularly in crafting impactful narratives, translating complex ideas, and shaping public discourse around social and environmental sustainability.

ADVOCACY & POLICY

In 2020, when the COVID 19 pandemic hit, Cline turned her expertise towards strategic organizing and campaigning for labor rights in fashion, working independently on strategy for the landmark #PayUp campaign, which won back $22During the COVID-19 pandemic, Elizabeth L. Cline contributed strategic guidance to the landmark #PayUp campaign, which successfully pressured major fashion brands to honor over $22 billion in owed payments to garment factories and workers. From 2021 to 2023, she served as Director of Advocacy and Policy at the nonprofit Remake, where she led strategy and communications for multiple successful labor rights campaigns. These included the passage of California’s Garment Worker Protection Act (SB62), the renewal and expansion of the Bangladesh Accord (now the International and Pakistan Accords), and the introduction of the FABRIC Act—the first comprehensive federal fashion industry reform bill—in the U.S. Senate, sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.