How the popular “Euro Summer” aesthetic collides with our dying planet
The idea of visiting Europe has seemed to put many post- pandemic summer travelers under a spell. Of course, referring to their travels as “Europe” With such large waves of tourism comes the inevitable boom of posts online from people visiting incredible beaches, holding aperol spritzes while wearing white linen dresses and soaking up a tan.
This image of a relaxing, luxurious vacation has grown to be the basis of the so-called “Euro Summer” aesthetic that has permeated every social media feed these past few months as people flock to Europe at record-breaking rates. Searches like “Euro summer outfits” have trended on TikTok and the hashtag “eurosummer” has over 270,000 posts on Instagram. Clothing brands have seemed to realize these vacations that people plan their entire summers around are the perfect opportunity to capitalise on and encourage further spending.
A simple search online of “Euro summer clothing” takes you to various links of popular fast fashion brands like Princess Polly and White Fox Boutique that have entire sections of their site dedicated to shoppers searching for clothes to match the aesthetic. Much of the clothing under the tabs is very on-trend, with plastic bead necklaces, lacy corset tops, and see-through fake crochet mini dresses, all screaming that they’ll never be worn past this summer after the trends inevitably change over the course of the year. My qualms with the aesthetic are less about people who buy one or two new pieces for their vacation. However, with the normalisation of clothing hauls on the internet, it has become trendy to buy entirely new wardrobes for one summer vacation.
Encouraging fast fashion when clothing is responsible for around 10 percent of global carbon emissions becomes rather terrifying to think about when this has been one of the hottest summers ever experienced globally. This summer has become one of the clearest signs that climate change is real, and there’s a gross dichotomy between posts on my social media feeds of “Euro Summer” clothing hauls and people suffering from wildfires, like recently in Maui, that has killed at least 100 people so far and earlier this summer in Canada that caused record breaking levels of pollution in the eastern part of the country.
There seems to be a distancing between the effects of climate change and how people choose to live, with most believing they somehow won’t be affected. But I believe summer 2023 has become a breaking point of sorts, proving that truly anyone and everyone will soon be affected by rising temperatures and a struggling planet. The “Euro Summer” aesthetic and its impact is a microcosm of the much larger issue of consumption and how the real life effects of global warming are beginning to slip through the cracks of carefully curated social media realities that choose to ignore the truth of this climate emergency. Living consciously of our impact should become a higher priority. Stopping excess clothing purchases by changing and slowing down how we approach trends is a fairly easy way to start.
