How do we get to the root of our anxiety? Well, we can’t fully, but the surge of petrifying media at our fingertips definitely triggers dooms more frequently than I’d like to admit, specifically, eco-anxiety dooms.
What is eco-anxiety? Characterized by ‘a chronic fear of environmental doom’ when the state of the environment directly affects our mental health, defined by the American Psychological Association. Correlating this doom alongside fashion can feel like it has a chokehold on us in the most backwards way. The ‘doom’ coinciding with our knowledge of fashion ambiguities leads us into corners, corners that address some of our generations’ most constraining topics.
I think about my closet, I think about each garment I own, what it took to be living within my closet. I think about sweatshops, I think about the women. I’m blasted with headlines and ad’s, black friday sales, BOGO’s, FW25 runway. Eco-anxiety affecting our mental health now feels ubiquitous.
The more we try to understand, the more we have to dissect. ‘Thrift more, buy less. Donate old clothing! Shop local.’ These simple suggestions within the world of fashion consumption are at the root of how we make ‘change’ in our relationship with clothing, fast fashion and our own personal waste.
How does the chronic fear of fast fashion doom directly affect our mental state?
The fashion industry is responsible for producing over 100 billion garments a year, with an astounding 87% ending up in landfills. Typically, these garments are incinerated to cope with the overwhelming volume received. The amount of clothing produced absolutely does not align with the amount of clothing discarded, therefore creating the absurdity of waste we know today.
When considering anxieties surrounding the fashion industry, false claims such as greenwashing, unreconciled policies, and destruction of unsold goods are at the forefront of conversation, yet simultaneously, these matters can feel ‘hush hush’ to the public. At the beginning of 2024, policies surrounding these regulations in the EU were in review. Greenwashing is a deceptive claim in which companies lead on consumers, insisting on vague recycling processes to consumers that simply do not exist.
Carrying the Weight
There are ways to combat these anxieties! Investing in community feels like something we had forgotten about, but it craves our attention and resilience now more than ever.
It can be as simple as signing up to volunteer at your local community garden or charity shop. You may connect with those who also crave creating lasting impact within our earth, and maybe even bring home a bucket of soil.
Real change within societies’ structure comes with re-defining policy, creating petitions, and showing up within your local community. As daunting as attending a city council meeting may seem, initially just being a fly on the wall can be a leap furthering our insight on the current state of our government and ways to combat the disparities that make us anxious.
Could we potentially cradle our eco-anxieties and diminish the pain we feel from the world of fashion? I guess there’s only one way to find out.
