What exactly is fast fashion?
Fast fashion is apparel that swiftly moves from the catwalk to stores to capitalize on trends. The collections generally follow Fashion Week runway presentations or celebrity trends. Fast fashion helps regular people pay for directions.
Due to cheaper, faster manufacturing and delivery technology, greater customer demand for contemporary patterns, and increased consumer buying power—especially among young people—to meet these instant gratification demands, fast fashion became popular. Fast fashion interrupts seasonal apparel releases. Fast-fashion stores release new products weekly to stay fashionable.
Understanding the Fast Fashion Industry
Buying clothes was previously a big deal. Savings were made for seasonal clothing purchases. Fashion shows gave fashionistas a sneak peek at new collections and apparel lines months before they hit shops.
That changed in the late 1990s when shopping became entertainment and apparel purchases skyrocketed. Fast fashion—cheap, trendy knockoffs mass-produced at a low cost—gave buyers the impression that they were wearing the same outfits as celebrities or models who “walked the runway.”
Fashion retailer supply chain management (SCM) advances enable fast fashion. It produces affordable apparel swiftly to meet changing market wants. The notion is that people seek affordable high fashion. The haphazardly manufactured clothes aren’t meant to be worn for years or numerous times.
Category management links manufacturers and consumers in a mutually beneficial fast-fashion partnership. This collaboration is essential to enhance and expedite supply chain procedures quickly.
Fast Fashion Industry Leaders
Zara, H&M Group, UNIQLO, GAP, Forever 21, Topshop, Esprit, Primark, Fashion Nova, and New Look dominate fast fashion. Many shops and manufacturers outsource clothing production. American mass-market department stores like Macy’s, JCPenney, and Kohl’s have adopted quick style. To compete, they’ve cut design and manufacturing timeframes for their in-house and proprietary brands.
Let’s examine some quick-fashion leaders.
Zara
Zara, the flagship brand of Inditex, is linked with quick fashion and a model for reducing design, manufacturing, and delivery time. Zara’s designers may draw a men’s, women’s, or children’s item and have it on shop shelves in four weeks. It can alter stuff in two weeks. Its small supply network explains its fast turnover. More than half of its plants are near its headquarters in A Coruña, Spain, including Portugal, Turkey, and Morocco. Its short turnaround time helps Zara pack stores with more merchandise, giving customers unmatched variety. It generates 11,000+ pieces annually, compared to the 2,000–4,000 industry average.
Zara’s 2021 net sales, including Zara Home, were €19.6 billion. As of mid-2022, it had 1,947 outlets worldwide and a significant internet presence.
H&M
One of the earliest fast-fashion brands, the Sweden-based H&M Group, was founded in 1947. In 2022, H&M Group had approximately 4,000 outlets in 74 countries, including COS and Monki, its youth-oriented brands.
H&M Group sells cosmetics, home furnishings, and apparel for men, women, and children like a department store. It sells clothes from 600 individual vendors rather than owning factories. 16 H&M manufacturing offices use cutting-edge IT tools to maintain inventories and interact with corporate headquarters while managing these vendors. The factories are throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa.
H&M has also sought to create innovative designs through its high-profile designer collaborations with Alexander Wang and Giambattista Vali. It released a Simone Rocha line in early 2021. H&M’s 2021 net sales were SEK 199 billion ($18.9 billion).
Pros and Cons of Fast Fashion
The Benefits of Fast Fashion
- New items make people visit stores more often and buy more. Instead of restocking, the shop substitutes out-of-stock products. Consumers know to purchase an item they like when they see it, regardless of price, since it won’t last long. Because the clothes are inexpensive and poorly manufactured, it’s easy to bring consumers back into stores or online to buy more.
- Fast fashion allows buyers to receive the things they desire quickly. It’s also improved the affordability of creative, trendy, and inventive apparel.
- Even low-income people can buy trendy clothes, fun or impractical stuff, and wear something new daily.
- The current trend of being “well-dressed” and having a vast wardrobe is no longer reserved for the affluent and famous. Everyone can look good.
Aspects Negative of Fast Fashion
- Fast fashion is also considered a threat to the U.S. garment industry, with stricter labor standards and higher salaries. Fast-fashion clothes are inexpensive, but buying several of them costs more than buying a few quality ones.
- It’s termed throwaway fashion because it promotes “throwaway” consumption. Fast fashionistas in their teens and early 20s—the industry’s target demographic—say they only wear their purchases once or twice.
- Fast fashion’s inexpensive materials and production processes are blamed for pollution, waste, and deliberate obsolescence. Poorly manufactured clothing doesn’t age properly yet can’t be recycled because it’s over 60% synthetic. When abandoned, they mold in landfills for years.
- Some manufacturers in underdeveloped nations have been dishonest about their supply chains or subcontractors, which can lead to exploitative, abusive labor practices. Critics say fast fashion is based on harsh, exploitative labor conditions, wages, and other behaviors.
- Some designers claim quick fashion businesses have copied and mass-produced their creations.
Pros
- Profitable for producers and merchants.
- Quick, efficient delivery
- Makes clothing inexpensive
- It makes fashion democratic
Cons
- Cheap materials, bad craftsmanship
- Promotes “throwaway” Buying
- Damages the environment
- Related to exploitative, abusive work
Impact on Workers and Environment
Some say quick fashion is wasteful and environmentally destructive. Waste can arise when considering the quality of craftsmanship, materials, inexpensive labor, short turnaround, and little stock for brisk sales on the latest trendy products.
The environmental effect is significantly worse than a first glance at the sector suggests. Briefly, some numbers:
- The industry requires 93 billion cubic meters of water annually.
- One pair of jeans uses 3,781 gallons of water.
- Many nations where garments are created have lax wastewater disposal standards, and 20% of global wastewater is harmful textile dyeing wastewater.
- Clothing microplastics—500,000 tons—end up in the ocean, equivalent to 50 billion plastic bottles.
- Fashion contributes almost 10% of global carbon emissions.
Economic Impact
Fast fashion dominates the garment business, which has grown 8% annually (excluding the 2020 pandemic). A 7% increase to $39.84 billion is predicted for 2025. Fast fashion manufacturing workers won’t benefit from industry expansion since local economies don’t receive revenues. Instead, sales are recognized in the nations where the corporations are located, stagnating local economies while others profit.
Workers’ Impact
Fast fashion corporations earn millions annually and employ thousands in offices, stores, and factories. Unfortunately, workers are underpaid, work long hours, and are exposed to dangerous chemicals.
Fast vs. Slow Fashion
Slow fashion is the reverse of rapid fashion, prioritizing speed over workers and the environment. First proposed in 2008 by fashion and sustainability expert Kate Fletcher, slow fashion employs ecologically friendly procedures and materials through “mindful manufacturing,” emphasizing quality rather than quantity. According to 3D printing giant Stratasys, mindful manufacturing promotes more efficient production, safe chemical and solid waste disposal, reused resources, and recyclable packaging.
How to Avoid Fast Fashion
Avoiding fast-fashion items is challenging but not impossible. However, consumerism and pricing are difficulties; many people cannot afford the things fast fashion imitates but are fascinated by the current styles.
There are ways to lessen the effect of your purchases outside of fighting consumerism:
Check your favorite businesses’ sustainable and ethical labor practices. Buying used garments reduces garment waste and increases their lifespan.
Speaking out against fast fashion and consumerism is another approach to raising awareness. Fast fashion’s social and environmental impact is unknown to most people, but only by raising awareness can firms be held accountable.
Why is fast fashion important?
Fast fashion is rushing to commercialize imitations of trendy styles without considering the environment or health.
Examples of fast fashion
Stradivarius, Victoria’s Secret, Urban Outfitters, Guess, Forever 21, and others are fast fashion labels.
Who Benefits From Fast Fashion?
The latest trend at affordable costs benefits consumers, but investors, owners, and other stakeholders profit most.
The Summary Decision
In 2020, Michigan State University business reference site GlobalEdge wrote, “The benefits of fast fashion are clear: more consumer spending, more profits, and the consumer satisfaction of being able to participate in a trend almost immediately after seeing it in magazines or on their favorite celebrities.” While quick fashion may be advantageous, it has several difficulties that make it troublesome. “This industry causes climate change, pesticide pollution, and massive waste,” the site says. Fast fashion’s raison d’être is labor exploitation and risk for speed and cost savings. As long as consumers buy high-style clothes at low costs and overlook the problems, fast fashion, alternatives, and how to proceed will be debated.
Conclusion
- Fast fashion refers to low-cost yet fashionable apparel that flows swiftly from design to retail outlets to follow trends, with new collections released regularly.
- Retailers’ supply chain management innovations enable quick fashion.
- Zara and H&M are two fast-fashion behemoths. UNIQLO, GAP, and Topshop are among the others.
- The advantages of fast fashion include lower pricing and rapid pleasure for customers, increased profitability for businesses, and the democratization of fashionable apparel.
- Fast fashion, on the other hand, is related to pollution, waste, the propagation of a “disposable” attitude, poor salaries, and dangerous workplaces.
