Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, fashion designers were already designing for the end.
Marine Serre models donned face masks down the runway for the past two seasons and Balenciaga flooded the front row as a nod to rising sea levels. Utilitarian armor and protective gear was already “the rage.”
At best, some designers used their platform to inform people about the threat of climate change, but the fashion industry already had blood on its hands.
They’ve helped fuel this man-made nightmare of fast fashion, intense multi-season expectations, greed, need, disaster, pollution, waste, but instead of doing anything about it – there’re now designing for it.
If you worked in fashion, you most likely you lost your job because of the pandemic. Your income, and for the most part, your inspiration.
So what is the purpose of fashion now? An industry already causing a lot of damage, rightly and swiftly deemed ‘unessential.’
You’re seeing more people heed their consumption levels now for one reason or another. Though e‑commerce outlets and shipping were still running during the pandemic, traditional fashion retail department stores ended up struggling, but is that really a bad thing?
High-priced, fast fashion retailers haven’t done much – if anything to – keep up with modern consumers. Their efforts to recognize the impact they’ve put on the environment and to make substantial changes have yet to be seen.
“What is the greed that is motivating a frenzied humanity to destroy the planet and degrade itself?”
—Daniel Pinchbeck, Breaking Open the Head
This quote really resonates with me during this time. I believe people are thinking twice about what is really important.
Pre-quarantine, fashion was something of a mental health booster to me. Something that picked me up in the morning – it was for self.
But with nowhere to go, fashion took a backseat and has me feeling a slight sense of loss-of-self. I put on jewelry and a new set of sweats to begin my day but it’s just wasn’t reasonable to put on what I’d normally wear – vintage dresses, blouses, layers, jackets, boots all to sit around the house in. There is no purpose for it. Fashion seems now purely for Instagram.
I just cant pull myself to get styled up for ‘likes.’ It was for me. It was my confidence, my shield, fashion is a part of me, and who I want to be that day.
I became the same everyday – comfortable – and my closet has remained basically untouched. I do not know what the purpose of fashion is during a stay in place pandemic. Health should rightly be the priority, fashion shouldn’t be in the forefront and I am thinking more about health, politics, and activism opportunities then fashion more than ever.
But with fashion being my source of income, it is still somewhat at the forefront of my well being not only mentally, but financially. Should we be running away from this industry? I’ll have to admit for the first time, I thought about it – but no, we shouldn’t run from our mis-deeds, we need to reset.
What we should be doing is thinking about the future of fashion when things are totally re-opened. Of course I don’t wish for Macy’s workers to be out of work, for example – so what are the industries’ next steps?
With the forced pause, were we thinking about what kind of relationship we want to have with our fashion consumption?
“We’ve put the reproduction of society in the hands of owners motivated purely by profit,”
—Malcolm Harris, Kids These Days
This is something that needs to change in most industries but especially fashion because of its considerable impacts on the environment. We need to introduce new, green, beneficial jobs to the fashion industry. We should bring back sewing and restoration outlets.
How can we recycle our unwanted clothing better and locally? How can we make any new clothes out of less wasteful, biodegradable, or recycled materials? How can we lessen the negative impacts of globalization and instead bring production more local? How can we distribute the wealth equally? Just to start.
“Can we finally stop idolizing wealth as the marker of a successful life, and instead focus on a landscape overflowing with compassion, safety, and dignity for all?”
—Erica Williams Simon, You Deserve the Truth
The fashion industry rightly forecasted the trends, but what are they going to do about it? Keep designing for it? They must be thinking, if we’re going down, we’re going down in style.
—fiona pitt
Flommist Fiona Pitt is a journalist and fashion model whose work has taken her to Asia and beyond. Today she is concerned with sustainability and the effects consumption has on our future. Copyright © 2020 Fiona Pitt.
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