Fast Fashion
Fast fashion refers to a retail phenomenon characterized by rapidly produced clothing that mirrors current runway trends and is sold at low prices. This model encourages frequent purchasing as new styles are introduced regularly, enticing consumers to continually update their wardrobes. Popular fast fashion brands, such as Zara and H&M, are known for their ability to quickly design, produce, and deliver clothing, often utilizing social media influencers to promote their latest collections. While fast fashion's affordability and trendy offerings attract many shoppers, the industry faces criticism for its significant social and environmental costs. Concerns include the high levels of textile waste generated, as consumers often dispose of clothing after only a few wears, and the considerable carbon emissions associated with mass production. Additionally, issues such as worker exploitation in low-cost manufacturing countries and practices like greenwashing—where brands misrepresent their sustainability efforts—have come under scrutiny. As a response to these criticisms, some governments and organizations are advocating for greater transparency and accountability within the fashion industry, aiming to foster more sustainable practices.
Subject Terms
Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is a term that refers to clothing that is made to mimic popular fashion trends from runways and luxury clothing brands. Fast fashion clothing is meant to sell quickly so retailers can constantly change the items they offer. This constant turnover in stores entices consumers to buy different, trendy items of clothing each time they shop. Additionally, fast fashion items are generally priced very cheaply. This allows many consumers to constantly buy new pieces and keep their wardrobes as up to date as possible. Although fast fashion has become extremely popular in the United States and other parts of the world, critics have pointed out that this phenomenon has many social and environmental costs.
Role in Retail
Fast fashion is successful mostly because of its fast cycles. Styles are created based on runway fashions as rapidly as possible. Prototypes are then quickly created and approved. Then, companies order small batches of clothing, but the batches include great variety. Clothing arrives at the stores on hangers and with tags, streamlining the in-store merchandising process. Fast fashion’s cycles are very predictable, and consumers know they can browse fast fashion stores every few weeks to find new styles and collections.
Fast fashion companies employ certain methods to keep their costs low and their production speed high. Because fast fashion companies need new style ideas all the time, they employ many fashion designers. To keep customers interested and purchasing all the time, many fast fashion companies make new purchases each week. Sometimes, fast fashion companies will even use more expensive shipping and labor methods just so they can sell new fashions faster. The companies do this because they believe they will recoup their money through higher sales of fashions that are popular at the moment. Shoppers are more likely to buy items that are stylish in the moment than items they feel are slightly outdated.
A great deal of fast fashion’s popularity comes from the clothing being stylish and inexpensive. Some experts believe that another reason for fast fashion’s popularity is the way it allows people to reinvent themselves. Consumers can constantly reinvent their personal styles by investing in different clothing. They do not have to commit to any certain style because the clothes are inexpensive to replace. Also, fast fashion companies often promote limited edition styles so consumers feel their styles are unique and they are not wearing the same clothing as everyone else.
The fast fashion industry is also tied closely to social media. Consumers often see celebrities and influencers posting photos of themselves in certain articles of clothing that viewers like and are eager to buy. In turn, fast fashion companies will very quickly reproduce that item of clothing for consumers to purchase cheaply. A 2019 survey revealed that nearly three-quarters of adults aged eighteen to twenty-four believed influencers were at least somewhat accountable for the growth of the fast fashion industry.
Impact on the Fashion Industry
Fast fashion consists of clothing collections that are cheap but are based on luxury brand styles. Fast fashion gives consumers the opportunity to buy styles similar to those of high-end retailers for a fraction of the price. Fast fashion retailers—such as Zara, H&M, and Forever 21—are able to attract customers who are willing and able to buy new clothing multiple times a year. The popularity of fast fashion stores has caused upheaval in the fashion industry. Many other retailers have started to mimic the fast fashion companies in hopes of making more money and attracting younger customers. In the early 2020s, the popularity and profitability of internet-based fast fashion retailers like Shein soared due to the prevalence of online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as widespread social media attention. The rapid growth of companies such as Shein, which filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States in November 2023, indicated to many observers that the fast fashion industry continued to enjoy tremendous growth in the US and many other countries at that time, despite ongoing criticism of the industry's environmental and labor practices.
The fast fashion industry has also affected clothing production. For example, Zara—one of the best-known fast fashion stores—used to manufacture most of its products in Europe. However, because of demands for making the clothing cheaper, Zara began manufacturing some of its clothing in Turkey and in China. Although the company has less quality control in these areas and shipping products can take more time, the clothes are made at less cost.
Criticisms of Fast Fashion
Critics of fast fashion mostly object to the trend because they believe it is unsustainable. One of the major criticisms of fast fashion is its negative impact on the environment. Fast fashion, by its nature, entices consumers to buy many pieces of clothing and replace wardrobes quickly. This cycle creates a high demand for many pieces of clothing that are produced cheaply. This also creates a culture in which people dispose of clothing quickly, even if the clothing is still in wearable condition. Furthermore, critics believe that when clothing is produced cheaply, producers tend not to focus on their environmental impact. As such, the fast fashion industry makes a large contribution to environmental issues like carbon emissions. The industry was responsible for as much as 10 percent of total global carbon emissions in the early 2020s, and that number was predicted to rise by 50 percent by 2030.
Critics say that another important aspect of fast fashion is planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is the idea that goods are produced to last only for a short time and will need to be replaced by another version of the same product. Not only do fast fashion pieces go out of style quickly, but also many of them fade, tear, or become otherwise unwearable. These traits of fast fashion make the industry a drain on the environment and resources. Americans generate roughly twenty-five billion pounds of textile waste each year. Furthermore, globally in 2022 the average consumer was buying six times more clothing than they did in the 2000s, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Although many critics say that fast fashion is extremely wasteful, the companies themselves argue that the fast fashion industry is not as wasteful as many have claimed. To help promote a more positive image, many fast fashion retailers have begun to accept used clothing from their customers. Stores often offer incentives for shoppers to return their used clothing, and the used clothing is donated to programs that recycle or reuse it. Likewise, fast fashion companies increasingly tout the environmentally friendly manner in which their clothing is produced to appeal to sustainably-minded consumers. Advocacy groups, however, continued to accuse brands of engaging in greenwashing—the practice of presenting misleading information about the sustainability or eco-friendliness of a company, its practices, or its products—and thus rejected those brands' sustainability campaigns. In mid-2022, for instance, the clothing company H&M was sued for its statements regarding the sustainability and environmental impacts of its products, which the accuser argued were inaccurate and misleading.
Government efforts to hold the industry accountable for its adverse impacts began in the 2020s. In late 2021, New York lawmakers introduced a bill that would require fashion companies conducting business in that state to meet transparency requirements regarding certain environmental and social impacts. Known as the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, the legislation would also require those companies to work toward meeting specific benchmarks to reduce its negative effects. Other government initiatives included the labor rights-focused Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change (FABRIC) Act, introduced to the US Senate in 2022.
The ramifications of fast fashion also remained a global concern, with international bodies such as UNEP working to educate the public about the waste produced by the fast fashion industry as well as the emissions impact of clothing production. For example, the United Nations launched the #ActNow Fashion Challenge in 2019, a social media campaign designed to highlight the industry's environmental impact on global warming and invite consumers to make zero-waste fashion choices, such as shopping in thrift stores and donating clothing to charity. In 2022, UNEP launched the Fashion Industry Target Consultation with the organization Global Fashion Agenda as part of an effort to set industry targets for reductions in pollution and the use of natural resources, among other areas of concern.
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