Fast Fashion

Introduction
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that on average Americans throw away
68 pounds of textiles per person a year. While another source estimates that Americans buy an
average of 64 items of clothing a year. We live in a finite world and cannot continue to exploit
earth’s resources. Fast fashion is becoming an increasingly large problem; we are consuming
more then we need or use.
The fashion apparel industry has significantly evolved, particularly over the last 20 years, when
the boundaries of the industry started to expand. The changing dynamics of the fashion industry
since then, such as the fading of mass production, increase in number of fashion seasons, and
modified structural characteristics in the supply chain have forced retailers to desire low cost
and flexibility in design, quality, delivery and speed to market. In addition to speed to market
and design, marketing and capital investment have also been identified as the driving forces of
competitiveness in the fashion apparel industry.
Looking at the basic structure of the fashion industry until the late 1980s, traditionally fashion
apparel retailers used their capability of forecasting consumer demand and fashion trends
(known as ready-to-wear) long before the actual time of consumption in order to compete in
the market. However, recent years have seen fashion retailers compete with others by ensuring
speed to market with their ability to provide rapidly the fashion trends revealed by fashion
shows and runways. According to Taplin, such retailers could be credited with the adoption of
‘quick fashion’ or ‘fast fashion’ that is an outcome of an unplanned process on the reduced
time gap between designing and consumption on a seasonal basis.
Definition
Fast fashion is a sector of the apparel industry that was developed in Europe to meet the rapidly
changing preferences of primarily young women who want to follow trends in fashion but at a
fraction of the cost. Before fast fashion, retailers had to place orders large enough to meet an
entire season’s demand, meaning large inventories that needed storage. This did not give
enough time for consumer demand to be understood and often led to end-of-season markdowns
and sales.
The Emergence of Fast Fashion
From the beginning, the garment industry has always been a low-capital and labor intensive
industry. Furthermore, the industry has been characterized by low entry barriers and
standardized production for a mass market. Apparel companies shifted more and more
production to developing countries, where there are ample amounts of low-skilled, low-cost
laborers. The past twenty years have seen the rise of globalization, which came with the
outsourcing of production to developing countries.
The appeals of developing nations for apparel companies are-
-Cheap labor
-Vast tax breaks
-Lenient laws and regulations
Fast fashion was able to emerge because of apparel companies moving production overseas,
which allowed for the cost of apparel to dramatically fall.
Some popular fast fashion brands
Previously, you could only get high fashion content at a high cost. Today fashion trends are
perpetually changing and fast fashion retailers like Forever 21, Gap, H&M, TopShop, and
Zara are able to capitalize on these trends through their supply chains. The fast fashion model
is a “streamlined system involving rapid design, production, distribution, and marketing”. In
other words, fast fashion retailers are able to pull smaller quantities of greater product variety
through the chain. Such companies disrupt the fashion pyramid allowing the consumer to get
more fashion content and product differentiation at a low price. Fast fashion products also
ensure consumer demand, short product cycles, and production runs for the retailer. The
introduction and emergence of the fast fashion model has become so widespread that it is
becoming the norm in the fashion industry much like the ready-made garment once did. The
time it takes for a product to go through the whole chain including being purchased is referred
to as lead-time. This term and concept surrounding time sensitivity is extremely crucial to fast
fashion. Fast fashion retailers’ lead-times are sometimes made public; Zara can design,
produce, and deliver a new garment in two weeks; Forever 21 six weeks, and H&M eight
weeks.
The Fast Fashion Consumer
The focus on analyzing fast fashions global commodity chains or supply chains leaves out the
material culture that surrounds this industry’s unique phenomenon of disposable clothing. The
fast fashion industry has hooked young modern women of all different socioeconomic
backgrounds. It is likely that technology plays a role in fast fashion consumers’ behavior and
loyalty to the retailers. Today, technology allows consumers access to large amounts of
information surrounding the latest trends or styles. Many fast fashion consumers take interest
in celebrity culture and high fashion want to buy similar things. The difficulty lies in the fact
that these consumers want what they see these public figures wearing or the trends that are
emerging from high fashion runway shows right away but they cannot afford these items. The
consumption of fast fashion reflects social aspirations through the identity people try to convey.
One fast fashion consumer describes what she looks for when she goes to the store,
‘I want to see new things and styles that help me create and recreate my wardrobe and who I
am. But I don’t want to look like someone else—so the limited edition satisfies this need to be
unique. When I see it on the catwalks or in the magazines, I want it immediately.’
It is important to understand that these consumers, specific to fast fashion, want the items
immediately. As a result, fast fashion companies place pressure on the supply chain’s lead-
time. This consumer preference and demand for an immediate supply also results in a cheap
product. A fast fashion product can be measured in the amounts of washes before it starts to
fall apart. Many fast fashion companies openly say that products will last for about ten washes,
after which the product will start to deteriorate due to poor-quality materials and manufacturing
the latter is something they do not say. Furthermore, this makes the products disposable
because trends and styles are rapidly changing. Consumers shop at the store that gives them
the product the quickest and cheapest. There is little fast fashion literature that focuses on why
the consumer continues to purchase cheap disposable trendy pieces of clothing. Clearly,
fashion brands and retailers are already using these motives by reaching out to the popular
haulers. Some haulers even have a large enough following where fast fashion retailers will
reach out to them giving them free products in return for those products to be in the haulers
video.
Fast Fashion and its environmental impact
Some consumers are becoming aware of the way their fast fashion clothes are made and the
environmental impact they have. A study looking at H&M consumers found that many
consumers do seek to minimize negative environmental effects precipitated by the fast fashion
industry. Consumers demonstrated “Concern for the environmental impact of apparel
manufacturing is important, as the Earth is not able to support the current level of production
and disposal of apparel due to depletion of natural resources and quick filling of landfills”. The
retailer took notice to these changing consumer preferences and started marketing a sustainable
line of clothing. A case study of the supply chain was conducted to reveal if H&M had actually
made any changes in their practices. The use of organic fabrics, recycling, and biological
agricultural systems are key components of this particular line of clothing. Moreover, H&M
consumers are rewarded for their recycling efforts of returning their used clothing to the store
by receiving a fifteen percent discount coupon on future purchases. This reward system
succeeded in encouraging consumers who would not have necessarily been concerned with
environmental impacts to participate in the act of recycling and it is now implemented in all
H&M stores across 54 countries. H&M serves as a prime example of a fashion supply chain
that successfully adopted the concept of low throughput.
Disadvantages of Fast Fashion
1. The level of pollution that is generated as a direct result of the textile and clothing
industry presents a dilemma given the fact that many individuals value fashion over the
protection of the environment. Industrialization has paved the route to the fast fashion
industry.
2. The increased generation of waste is of warranted environmental concern. The fast
fashion industry has profoundly confounded the problematic issue of clothing
production and pollution. More often than not landfills constitute the final destination
for clothing.
3. The fast fashion industry contributes towards significant depletion of natural
resources. In fact, issues of resource depletion begin at the onset of textile production,
throughout the lifecycle of the clothing, to the point in time at which the products are
wasted or disposed. There are many natural resources that go into fiber production each
year, including 145 million tons of coal and approximately 2 trillion gallons of water.
4. Many of the fabrics found in fast fashion products are man-made fibers. Fast fashion
products are almost entirely synthetic fibers, which include nylon and polyester. These
fibers account for more than half of apparel products and 40 percent of all fiber
production across the globe.
5. The production of making synthetic fibers into textiles is an energy intensive process.
It requires large amounts of petroleum and releases damaging emissions such as volatile
organic compounds, particulate matter, and acid gases like hydrogen. Volatile organic
compounds include monomers, solvents, and other by-products that end up in the
wastewater from manufacturing plants.
References:
• An Analysis of the Fast Fashion Industry by Annie Radner Linden Bard College,
[email protected]
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232964904
• Fast fashion: Response to changes in the fashion industry Article in The International
Review of Retail Distribution and Consumer Research · February 2010
• Fast fashion: response to changes in the fashion industry Vertica Bhardwaj* and Ann
Fairhurst
• The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research Vol. 20, No.
1, February 2010, 165–173
Video links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v7f0KeNpv8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq0--DfC2Xk&t=1s