“The way we dress is destroying the world,” the founder of the Isha Foundation, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, said once to Imran Amed on the Business of Fashion podcast. Sadhguru organized an initiative called Fashion for Peace that works to eliminate the use of plastic-based synthetics that pose a significant human health concern in India and beyond by encouraging American fashion designers to partner with small-scale natural fiber producers and weavers in India. During this podcast, Sadhguru discussed the “epidemic of stress” he observed in modern society, driven by a lack of self-management and an ignorance about the true source of happiness. He specifically discussed the Buddhist concept of “no self”: the idea that who we consider ourselves to be, as a concrete and unchanging identity, does not actually exist, and our efforts to create it is the cause of great suffering. To hear someone from the spiritual realm speak of spirituality and fashion in the same breath felt like a source of hope to me.
During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, fashion industry supply chain was severely shaken as the virus required a shutdown of economies across the world. Retail spaces were forced to close; unsold inventories of clothing piled up. Many suppliers and retailers shuttered their doors for good or filed bankruptcy. Meanwhile, people prioritized their health and well-being, many facing unemployment or drastically reduced incomes. Consumer spending dropped, and buying became focused by essential needs. Classic drivers of consumption, such as brand image, personality type, and status, particularly salient in fashion consumption, became less evident in buying patterns. Scholars have argued with some pretty convincing evidence that the abrupt and extensive periods of lockdown and isolation provided a turning point for many. Many became more aware of their buying behavior and developed a greater attunement to their own sufficiency. Researchers suggests that the segment of the population currently reconsidering their lifestyle is substantive and may crosscut levels of affluence.
The fashion industry is a threat to human rights, an environmental dilemma, and one of the greatest producers of pollution and waste on the planet. Since 2005, clothing production has doubled, sales have increased by 70%, and the utilization of that clothing is down by almost half. Consumers are acquiring more clothing, using it less, and disposing of it faster without a conscious recognition of the real costs. Our relationship with clothing has been altered fundamentally by a culture of disposability; it has little meaning or purpose. And, while consumer awareness of the industry’s dark side appears to be much higher now than previous decades, clothing users struggle to fully deploy their ethics when it comes to clothes.
Even before the pandemic, popular media like the documentary Less is Now or Marie Kondo’s series Tidying Up illustrated for Americans how excess consumption and clutter negatively affect well-being, and mindfulness was increasingly being proposed as an antidote. Mindfulness is a spiritual practice used to heighten awareness in the present moment. Audiences sought to reduce stress, find meaning, or reduce attachment to material possessions. Responsively, some researchers had already begun to conceptualize “mindful consumption”, an approach that could be used to simplify desires, decrease unconscious choices, and clarify one’s values. While it is well-established that mindfulness practice can reshape cognitive habits, far less is known about how spiritual experience impacts consumption decisions. What we do know is that mindfulness promotes a reflective process that leads to self-knowledge, which includes negotiating how we situate ourselves in a consumerist society.
To be sure, our problem is not a lack of ethics but our diminished capacity to access our ethics in a way that disrupts deeply engrained ideas about how much consumption is enough. It’s not just about cleaning out your closet, shopping for better brands, or renting your clothes. It’s a much longer game; one that calls upon our spiritual nature to become attuned to all that consumption involves. The long game is an inside job.