Fast fashion
Quick retail copying of catwalk trends
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Fast fashion is the business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail quickly while demand is at its highest. The term fast fashion is also used generically to describe the products of this business model, particularly clothing and footwear. Retailers who employ the fast fashion strategy include Primark, H&M, Shein, and Zara,[1] all of which have become large multinationals by driving high turnover of inexpensive seasonal and trendy clothing that appeals to fashion-conscious consumers.
Fast fashion grew during the late 20th century as manufacturing of clothing became less expensive—the result of more efficient supply chains, new quick response manufacturing methods, and greater reliance on low-cost labor from the apparel manufacturing industries of South, Southeast, and East Asia, where women make up 85-90% of the garment workforce. Labor practices in fast fashion are often exploitative, and due to the gender concentration of the garment industry, women are more vulnerable.[2]
Fast fashion's environmental impact has also been the subject of controversy. The global fashion industry is responsible for 8–10% of global carbon emissions per year, to which fast fashion is a large contributor. The low cost of production, favoring synthetic materials, chemicals, and minimal pollution abatement measures have led to excess waste.[3]
Origins
Before the 1800s, fashion was a laborious, time-consuming process that required sourcing materials like wool, cotton, or leather, treating and preparing the materials by hand, then weaving or fashioning them into functional garments, also by hand. However, the Industrial Revolution changed the world of fashion by introducing new technology like the sewing machine and textile machines.[4]
As a result, clothes became cheaper and easier to make and buy. Meanwhile, localized dressmaking businesses emerged, catering to members of the middle class, and employing workroom employees along with garment workers,[5] who worked from home for meager wages. These dress shops were early prototypes of the so-called ‘sweatshops’ that would become the foundation for twenty-first century clothing production.[6]
The Cosmopolitan journalist Lauren Bravo sees fast fashion stretching back to utility clothing and tailors who sold mass produced affordable suits for men. In the 1960s companies like Inditex and Chelsea Girl attained commercial acumen, but the brand Biba endures as a fast fashion icon.[7]
Before the popularization of the fast fashion model, the fashion industry traditionally operated on a four-season cycle, with designers working months in advance to anticipate customer preferences. However, this approach underwent a significant transformation in the 1960s and 1970s, as the younger generations began to create new trends. During this period there was still a clear distinction between luxury goods and high street fashion. In the 21st century mass consumption of clothing has been on the rise. In 2014, the average person purchased 60 percent more articles of clothing and kept said clothing for half as long compared to the year 2000.[8][better source needed]
Fast fashion retailers such as Zara,[9] H&M, Topshop, and, Primark emerged as prominent brands in the high street fashion scene. Initially starting as small stores located across Europe, they were able to quickly gain prominence in the U.S. fashion market by replicating design elements from runway shows and top fashion houses and quickly reproducing them at a fraction of the cost.[10]
The origins of the "fast fashion" phenomenon involve several key players, rather than a single brand or company. One influential figure in this movement was Amancio Ortega, the founder of Zara. Established in 1963 in Galicia, Spain, Zara gained prominence by offering affordable imitations of high-end fashion trends alongside its original designs. In 1975, Ortega opened the first European retail outlet for his collections, pioneering his short-term production and distribution model. By the early 1990s, he had expanded to New York, and the New York Times coined the term fast fashion to describe Zara's business model, highlighting its ability to bring a designer's idea to store shelves in as soon as 15 days.[10]
In their 2008 article "Fast Fashion Lessons,"[11] Donald Sull and Stefano Turconi studied how Zara revolutionized the fast fashion industry. They attributed the company's success to its strategic supply chain and production network where they [Zara] maintained complicated and capital-intensive operations (like computer-guided fabric cutting) in-house, and outsourced more labour-intensive operations, such as garment sewing, to a network of local subcontractors and seamstress operatives based in Galicia.[12]
Thus, with shorter lead times, the company was able to respond rapidly to fluctuating demand by swiftly halting production of low-demand items and creating a sense of urgency for consumers to purchase in-demand clothing due to the ever-changing layout and stock of its stores.[12] Items in store may not be in stock during subsequent visits, prompting consumers to make immediate purchases if they wish to remain on trend. The clothing is then only worn a few times before it is no longer in style, creating the need to constantly return to the store and buy new, on trend items cheaply.[13]
Unlike many fashion companies, Zara rarely invests in television adverts or press promotional campaigns. Instead, it relies on store windows to convey brand image, word of mouth, and establishing store locations strategically in areas with high consumer traffic.[14]
The origin story of H&M shares common threads with Zara. Technically, it is the world's longest-running retailer. In 1946, Erling Persson, a Swedish entrepreneur, travelled to New York City, where he was greatly intrigued and impressed by the high-volume fashion production he witnessed. The following year, Persson established a womenswear store called Hennes & Mauritz (or H&M) in Västerås, Sweden. Between 1960 and 1979, the company rapidly expanded, with 42 stores across Europe, and began producing clothing for women, men, and children.[15]
The foundation for expansion into the global market was laid in the 1980s when H&M acquired Rowells, a Swedish mail order company, and used its networks to sell fast fashion by catalogue and mail order. In the 1990s, H&M invested in large city billboard advertising, featuring celebrities and supermodels. H&M opened its flagship USA store on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 2000, marking the commencement of its expansion outside of Europe.[15]
Concept
Fast fashion brands produce pieces to get the newest style on the market as soon as possible.[16] They emphasize optimizing certain aspects of the supply chain for the trends to be designed and manufactured quickly and inexpensively and allow the mainstream consumer to buy current clothing styles at a lower price. This philosophy of quick manufacturing at an affordable price is used in large retailers such as SHEIN, H&M,[17] Zara,[18] C&A, Peacocks, Primark, ASOS,[19] Forever 21, and Uniqlo.[20][17]
These retailers produce and sell products in small batches, keep surplus manufacturing capacity on hand, and frequently induce items to be out of stock,[21] a practice designed to give retailers the ability to make substantial and immediate adjustments to manufacturing. For example, up to 85% of Zara's merchandise can be changed in the middle of the season:[21] A fast fashion system like Zara's can quickly update designs, resulting in short product cycles where a garment does not sit on the stores' shelf for long periods, giving the store a sense of exclusivity and raising the attractiveness of an item.[21]
Fast fashion particularly came to the fore during the vogue for "boho chic" in the mid-2000s.[22] According to the UK Environmental Audit Committee's report "Fixing Fashion", the practice "involves increased numbers of new fashion collections every year, quick turnarounds and often lower prices. Reacting rapidly to offer new products to meet consumer demand is crucial to this business model."[23]
Fast fashion has developed from a product-driven concept based on a manufacturing model referred to as "quick response" developed in the U.S. in the 1980s[24] and moved to a market-based model of "fast fashion" in the late 1990s and the early 21st century. The Zara brand name has become almost synonymous with the term, but other retailers worked with the concept before the label was applied, such as Benetton.[25][26] Fast fashion has also become associated with disposable fashion because it has delivered designer products to a mass market at relatively low prices.[27]
The advancement of technology has allowed fast fashion to gain popularity over the last decade. Technology has allowed designers to create specifically what their consumers want according to what is "in" at the given moment. Every month, new things are trending and are displayed in stores to market towards youth. Technology has the power to change all the issues within the fast fashion industry. Brands such as Zara have been listening to their consumers and "thinking green" to improve their environmental impact. As Nina Davis[who?] stated in 2020, "[Companies] are also adopting advanced technologies to improve supply chain efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint."[28]
Slow fashion counter
The slow fashion or conscious fashion movement has risen in opposition to fast fashion, taking issue with responsibility for pollution (both in the production of clothes and in the decay of synthetic fabrics), poor workmanship, and emphasis on very brief trends over classic style.[29] Elizabeth L. Cline's 2012 book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion was one of the first investigations into the human and environmental toll of fast fashion. The practice has also come under criticism for contributing to poor working conditions in developing countries.[30] The 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, the deadliest garment-related accident in world history, brought more attention to the safety impact of the fast fashion industry.[31]
In the rise of slow fashion, emphasis has been given to quality clothing that is more enduring. In the 2020 spring-summer fashion season, high-end designers led the movement of slow fashion by creating pieces that developed from environmentally friendly practices in the industry.[32] Stella McCartney is a luxury designer who focuses on sustainable and ethical practices and has done so since the 1990s.[33] British Vogue explained that the process of designing and creating clothing in slow fashion involves consciousness of materials, consumer demand, and climate impact.[32]
In her 2016 article titled "Doing Good and Looking Good: Women in 'Fast Fashion' Activism", Rimi Khan criticized the slow fashion movement, particularly the work of high-profile designers and slow fashion advocates McCartney and Vivienne Westwood, as well as other well known industry professionals such as Livia Firth, for creating fashion products which cater to a mostly western, wealthy, and female demographic.[34] Khan also pointed out that because most slow fashion products are significantly more expensive than fast fashion items, consumers are required to have a certain amount of disposable income in order to participate in the movement.[34] Khan argues that by proposing a solution to fast-fashion that is largely inaccessible to many consumers, they are positioning wealthier women as "agents of change" in the movement against fast fashion, whereas the shopping habits of lower income women are often considered "problematic".[34]
Andrea Chang provided a similar critique of the slow fashion movement in her article "The Impact of Fast Fashion on Women". She wrote that the slow and ethical fashion movements place too much responsibility on the consumers of fast fashion clothing, most of whom are women, to influence the industry through their consumption.[35] Chang suggests that because most consumers are limited in their ability to choose where and how they purchase clothing, largely due to financial factors, anti-fast fashion activists should target lawmakers, manufacturers, and investors with a stake in the fast fashion industry rather than create an alternative industry that is only accessible to some.[35]
Economics
Fast fashion proves successful economically for the retail industry worldwide. The fast-fashion market in 2020 globally produced $25.1 billion.[36] It was expected to increase at an annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9%, resulting in the global market increase to $31 billion in 2021.[36] By 2030, it is estimated that the fast fashion industry will bring a revenue of $192 billion to the world's global economy.[37]
This economic growth from fast fashion is demonstrated through how companies like H&M or Shein strategize in manufacturing. Most fast fashion clothes exporters are from developing countries across Asia, such as India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Developing countries' economies rely on fast fashion consumption as most export earnings profit from ready-made clothes. China, for example, has gained a yearly profit of $158.4 billion from exporting such clothes. Additionally, the hazardous working circumstances in these employees endure have an adverse effect on their health, as the employees have to regularly work with hazardous chemicals when manufacturing clothes. Toxic Chemicals, such as lead, phthalates, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are commonly used to preserve and increase the durability of the clothes, however too much contact with these chemicals put employees and consumers at risk of getting deadly diseases.[38] Alongside the risk of illness employees are more likely to suffer from accidents among their coworkers and having a negative effect on the labor force around the world.[3]
Manufacturing
The fast fashion industry is able to thrive economically through the low production costs of their manufacturers in Asia. One low production cost is the investment cost of materials to make a garment. Fast fashion invests in polyester and cotton fabric because they are inexpensive and durable. In 2020 polyester's global price per metric ton was $725 (or 32.9 cents per pound), and the global price for cotton in 2021 was 126 cents per pound.[39][40]
According to these statistics, polyester fabric is more affordable than cotton, but both are relativity cheaper than higher quality fabric such as silk or wool. One basic T-shirt would require .5 lbs of cotton material, resulting in less than $1 of cotton fabric used.[41]
Wage criticisms
The fast fashion industry faces criticism for hiring garments workers from developing countries for their low wages. There are more than 60 million workers that produce garments for the fast fashion retail, and 80 percent of those workers are women.[42]
MVO Netherlands researched in 2019 that workers' monthly wages in Ethiopia that manufacture for H&M, Gap, and JCPenney begins at $32, while an experienced worker is $122 a month.[42] The lowest hourly wage for workers in developing countries is less than 0.50 cents. In developed countries like the United States, the average garment worker in Los Angeles, reported by the Garment Worker Center (GWC), is about $5.15 per hour despite the federal minimum wage being $7.25 per hour in 2016.[43]
Hence, workers' monthly income would be about $858 if they worked 40 hours a week. This is a much higher salary than in developing countries but still lower than the U.S. standard of living in income conditions. To reach the target goals of consumer demands from the U.S. and Europe, garment laborers in developing countries, on average, are expected to work 11 hours a day.[42]
Strategy
Management
Fashion is updated frequently to meet peoples demand for the availability of the newest and latest clothing styles. The efficiency is achieved through the retailers' understanding of the target market's wants, which is a high fashion-looking garment at a price at the lower end of the clothing sector. One of the largest causes of the high demand is the short trend cycles: The more an audience is exposed to new trends, the higher the demand grows. Primarily, the concept of category management has been used to align the retail buyer and the manufacturer in a more collaborative relationship.[44]
Quick response method
Quick Response (QR) was developed to improve manufacturing processes in the textile industry to remove time from the production system.[45] The U.S. Apparel Manufacturing Association initiated the project in the early 1980s to address a competitive threat to its textile manufactures from imported textiles in countries with low labor costs.[46] During the project, lead times in the manufacturing process were halved; the U.S. industry became more competitive for a time, and imports were lowered as a result.[47] The QR initiative was viewed by many as a protection mechanism for the American textile industry with the aim of improving manufacturing efficiencies.[48]
Quick response is now used to support fast fashion, creating new products while drawing consumers back to the retail experience for consecutive visits.[49] Quick response also makes it possible for new technologies to increase production and efficiency, typified by the introduction of the complementary concept of Fast Fit.[49] The Spanish mega chain Zara, owned by Inditex, has become the global model for how to decrease the time between design and production. This production shortcut enables the company to manufacture over 30,000 units of product every year to nearly 1,600 stores in 58 countries.[50]
New items are delivered twice a week to the stores, reducing the time between initial sale and replenishment. As a result, the shortened time period improves consumer's garment choices and product availability while significantly increasing the number of per customer visits per annum. In the case of Renner, a Brazilian chain, a new mini-collection is released every two months.[50]
Delivery and waste
Fast fashion typically offers buyers quick shipping, meaning delivery can be same-day or only take a few days.[51] Due to constantly evolving trends, buyers need to have their item before it is no longer in style.[52] Oftentimes, fast fashion brands will offer the buyer deals, where they can spend a certain amount of money to get free shipping.[53] This creates a lot of impulse buying, resulting in the items being returned. However, fast fashion returns do not always get sold again. The company will likely throw the item out because it is no longer in style.[54]
The concerns are not simply related to solid waste any longer either. Fast fashion packaging is accountable for 40% of plastic waste according to a 2022 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development report.[55] While a recent survey found that nearly 10% of the microplastics found in the ocean occur from textile waste and discarded fashion clothing which may raise a bit of a concern going forward.[56]
Marketing
Marketing is a key driver of fast fashion, creating the desire for consumption of new designs as close as possible to the point of creation. Marketing closes the gap between creation and consumption by promoting something fast, low-priced, and disposable.[57] The continuous release of new products essentially makes the garments a highly cost-effective marketing tool that drives consumer visits, increases brand awareness, and results in higher rates of consumer purchases. Fast fashion companies have higher profit margins due to their lower % markdown percentage of 15% compared to competitors' 30% plus. The fast fashion business model reduces time cycles from production to consumption, stimulating sales through trends that change throughout the seasons. For example, the traditional fashion seasons followed the annual cycle of summer, autumn, winter and spring, but in fast fashion cycles have compressed into shorter periods of 4–6 weeks and in some cases less. Marketers have thus created more buying seasons in the same time-space.[58]
Companies use two marketing strategies, since the main difference is the amount of advertisement spending. While some companies invest in advertising, others like Primark operate with no advertising, investing in store layout and visual merchandising to create the instant hook.[59] Research shows that 75 percent of consumers' decisions are made in front of a fixture within three seconds.[44]
Social media marketing
In recent years, fast fashion retailers have taken a new approach to reaching consumers. Initially, social media's sole purpose was to act as a platform allowing people to connect with other users worldwide. However, social media has become a way for retailers to promote their products and impact consumer behavior.[60][predatory publisher] Now, consumers are able to look at products and businesses on social media before heading to a store or going online to make a purchase. Additionally, consumers can read real customer reviews on different social media accounts to get a better idea of the quality of the products as well as the customer service.[60] Fast fashion retailers were quick to jump on the trend. Fast fashion retailers like Boohoo.com realized that social media advertisements could be a great way to reach their target audience, young girls.[1] Such users were swarmed with fast fashion advertisements each time they opened Instagram. Companies like Boohoo hoped that the constant exposure to their products would influence users to not only visit their website, but also to buy clothing from them.[1]
Instead of posting pre-made ads on their accounts, fast fashion retailers realized that an effective way to advertise could be to use social media influencers.[1] Social media influencers can be defined as "regular" individuals who have accrued a large number of followers across multiple social media platforms as a result of the content they post.[61] For the most part, influencers focus their content on one subject area, like food or fashion[61] and have become their own kind of "internet celebrities" whom followers value and whose opinions they trust. As a result, when social media influencers post content wearing an outfit from Shein, their followers may feel compelled to purchase clothing from that retailer too. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between following social media influencers and shopping more frequently.[1] Even though some fast fashion retailers still have "celebrity ambassadors", many retailers have turned to social media influencers to promote their clothing.[1]
The world saw a surge in these social media marketing practices during the coronavirus pandemic.[62] Shein quickly took center stage across numerous social media platforms. Social media users, specifically young women, could not go online without seeing something from this fast fashion website, and "Shein hauls" became one of the most popular trends on TikTok, with 4.7 billion #sheinhaul views as of March 2022.[citation needed] Haul videos consist of individuals recording themselves showing items they purchased (typically a large quantity) and posting the video on platforms like YouTube or TikTok.[62] Amid a global pandemic, these billions of views allowed Shein to bring in about $10 billion in revenue that year.[62]
Production
"Supermarket" market
The consumer in the fast fashion market thrives on constant change and the frequent availability of new products.[49] Fast fashion is considered to be a "supermarket" segment within the larger sense of the fashion market.[44] This term refers to fast fashion's nature to "race to make apparel an even smarter and quicker cash generator".[49] Three crucial differentiating model factors exist within fast fashion consumption: market timing, cost, and the buying cycle.[44] Timing's objective is to create the shortest production time possible. The quick turnover has increased the demand for the number of seasons presented in the stores. This demand also increases shipping and restocking time periods. Cost is still the consumer's primary buying decision. Costs are largely reduced by taking advantage of lower prices in markets in developing countries. In 2004, developing countries accounted for nearly 75 percent of all clothing exports and the removal of several import quotas has allowed companies to take advantage of the even lower cost of resources.[49] The buying cycle is the final factor that affects the consumer. Traditionally, fashion buying cycles are based around long-term forecasts that occur one year to six months before the season.[49]
Supply chain, vendor relationships and internal relationships
Supply chain
Supply chains are central to the creation of fast fashion, and supply chain systems are designed to add value and reduce cost in the process of moving goods from design concept to retail stores and through to consumption.[63] The selection of a merchandising vendor is a key part in the process. Inefficiency primarily occurs when suppliers cannot respond quickly enough, and clothing ends up bottlenecked and in back stock.[50] Two kinds of supply chains exist, agile and lean. In an agile supply chain, the principal characteristics include sharing information and technology.[49] The collaboration results in the reduction in the amount of stock in megastores. A lean supply chain is characterized as the correct appropriation of the commodity for the product.[49]
Vendor relationships
The companies in the fast fashion market also utilize a range of relationships with the suppliers. The product is first classified as "core" or "fashion".[49]
Internal relationships
Productive internal relationships within the fast fashion companies are as important as the company's relationships with external suppliers, especially regarding the company's buyers. Traditionally with a "supermarket" market the buying is divided into multi-functional departments. The buying team uses the bottom-up approach when trend information is involved, meaning the information is only shared with the company's fifteen top suppliers.[49] On the other hand, information about future aims, and strategies of production are shared downward within the buyer hierarchy so the team can consider lower cost production options.[49]
Environmental impact
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe,[64] the fast fashion system provides opportunities for economic growth, but the entire industry hinders sustainability efforts by contributing to 20% of wastewater. In addition, fast fashion is responsible for nearly 10 percent of global gas emissions. Providing insight, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation released study results on fashion and suggests a new circular system. A singular t-shirt requires over 2,000 liters of water to make.[65] Clothing is not utilized to its full potential, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation explains that linear systems are contributing to unsustainable behavior and the future of fashion may need to transition towards a circular system of production and consumer behavior.[citation needed]
Journalist Elizabeth L. Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion and one of the earliest critics of fast fashion, notes in her Atlantic article Where Does Discarded Clothing Go?[66] that Americans are purchasing five times the amount of clothing than they did in 1980. Due to this rise in consumption, developed countries are producing more and more garments each season with the U.S. importing more than 1 billion garments annually from China alone.[67] United Kingdom textile consumption surged by 37% from 2001 to 2005.[68] The Global Fashion Business Journal reported that in 2018, the global fiber production has reached the highest all-time, 107 million metric tons.[69]
The average American household produces 70 pounds (32 kg) of textile waste every year.[70] The residents of New York City discard around 193,000 tons of clothing and textiles, which equates to 6% of all the city's garbage.[66] In comparison, the European Union generates a total of 5.8 million tons of textiles each year.[71] As a whole, the textile industry occupies roughly 5% of all landfill space.[70] This means that the clothing industry produces about 92 million tons of textile waste annually, much of which is burned or goes into a landfill and less than 1% of used clothing is recycled into new garments.[72] The clothing that is discarded into landfills is often made from non-biodegradable synthetic materials.[73]
Greenhouse gases and various pesticides and dyes are released into the environment by fashion-related operations.[74] The United Nations estimated that the business of what we wear, including its long supply chains, is responsible for 10 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions heating our planet.[75] The growing demand for quick fashion continuously adds effluent release from the textile factories, containing both dyes and caustic solutions.[76] In comparison, greenhouse gas emissions from textile production companies is more than international flights and maritime shipping combined annually. The materials used not only affect the environment in textile products, but also the workers and the people who wear the clothes. The hazardous substances affect all aspects of life and release into the environments around them.[77] Optoro estimates that 5 billion pounds of waste is generated through returns each year, contributing 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.[78] Fast fashion production has doubled since 2000, with brands such as Zara producing 24 collections a year and H&M producing about 12 to 16 collections a year.[79]
