Priorities in the age of a pandemic

I’m going to level with you. I’ve been sitting on half an idea for this piece for quite some time now. I have a parent who lives in Australia, and I was lucky enough to spend some time over there at the end of last year. It had been planned for months, but when the time came around, I didn’t realise how much I’d needed it. It’s not uncommon for people to ‘burn out’ during the weeks leading up to Christmas. With so much going on and people to catch up with, a busier workload and a break-up thrown in for good measure, I found it hard to motivate myself to find something to write about at a time where, really, I just needed a break.

Looking back, there were several things worth writing about. The bushfires - where it is estimated the around one billion animals were injured or killed, volunteers and fire fighters lost their lives trying to combat the flames, and where many people’s homes, businesses and livelihoods were destroyed - is definitely one of them. While I was there, I noticed that when the sun was lower in the sky during the afternoons, the light became very orange as a result of the amount of dust in the atmosphere blocking the sun. While this gave everything a natural sepia filter and made for some interesting light for taking photos on film, it was a stark reminder that these are not normal circumstances and are something we should definitely be worrying about.

There’s no escaping the fact that climate change is real. It’s happening, it’s terrifying, and after seeing the severity of the Australian bushfires, I think we can all agree that it has crept to the forefront of our minds a little more, however many sustainable choices we may or may not have already been making. 

It’s no secret that the fashion industry is a massive contributor toward this global crisis, and with clothing now so cheap and accessible with the help of fast fashion brands, it is easy to see why. However, climate crisis aside, we now have another huge global issue on our hands. While coronavirus has pulled the rug out from under the feet of millions, many are struggling with the reality of loss of work and income as a result of this. Those of us lucky enough to be able to continue to work from home without much impact on our salaries, could quite possibly have found ourselves with extra cash on our hands whilst we’re not spending it on transport or going out. 

It may be tempting to fill our baskets up at this time, especially with daily emails landing in our inboxes from companies big and small, offering various deals and promotions as they struggle to gain revenue with no shoppers on the highstreet. However, looking at this more sceptically, you could argue that the larger companies may be using Covid-19 as a marketing tool to try and sell us more stuff. The question is, do we really need any of it right now?

According to a study carried out by the charity Barnado’s, we acquire around 80 billion garments globally every year. Each item is worn an average of seven times before it is disposed of, inevitably ending up in landfill. With this in mind, and the rate that online fast fashion retailers add pieces to their websites, are we really going to want to wear that new outfit we’ve just bought to the pub (whenever that will be), or will we have moved on to something else entirely while said outfit sits in our wardrobe? 

Coronavirus has certainly shaken up the way we have lived our lives up until now, and perhaps putting the world on pause is what the environment needed (albeit not necessarily like this). But what does the future of the fashion industry look like? Is where we start to ditch ‘trends’ and fall back in love with the things we already have, or where we commit to investing in more expensive pieces that are timeless and will last? Let’s hope the brands that can adapt and use their power to help, such as Louis Vuitton using its fragrance and cosmetic factories to make hand sanitiser, are the ones that survive.

It is true that the times we are living in are calling for us to be kinder to ourselves and to others, and that might involve treating ourselves from time to time. But they are also an opportunity to step back and look at the wider picture, and maybe reconsider what should and should not be priorities right now (cough cough, online shopping). 

The way in which we view and value work has also shifted. Certain professions are now out of work while jobs that would have previously been deemed ‘low skilled’ are relied on more than ever, as these are the jobs of the key workers that are keeping us all going. In times like these, it is an opportunity for reflection, to sit back and realise that there are collective problems as well as our own personal ones, and by facing them together we can become more unified. Perhaps now is not the time to buy and flex new purchases, but to slow down and be mindful of the planet, and of others that aren’t in a position to purchase anything new at all.