Fast fashion has become somewhat of a buzzword in today's mainstream media. By definition of the Oxford English dictionary, Fast fashion is ‘Inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. In reality, it’s a highly contested umbrella term that has come to mean everything from a rapidly growing segment of the fashion industry, to describing the speed of the fashion supply chain from design to shop floor, and ultimately a way to express (with discontent) the rising level of fashion consumption that has lead to fashion landing itself a top spot as one of the world’s most polluting industries.

So depending on your views and experience, you’ll hear “fast fashion” and either think it’s the best thing ever or the worst thing ever.

If you care (or a mildly interested / curious) about the fashion industry and/or the health of our planet in the midst of a climate crisis, then having a fundamental understanding of ‘fast-fashion’ is a must.

This will give you a run down of exactly what fast-fashion is, it’s influence on the fashion industry and consumption habits. Later on, we will go into the environmental impact of the fashion industry and we’ll also give you some alternatives to fast fashion if you’re looking to move away from the buy, wear, and dispose cycle of fashion, towards a more meaningful closet.

History of the fashion industry

How did fast fashion start?

To understand the definition of fast fashion and how it has shaped our world today, it’s important to understand what came before. Why? Because fashion has been around forever, but how we consume and enjoy fashion today is completely new…

Seasons, then and now

Remember the days when there were two fashion seasons a year? Spring/Summer and Autumn Winter? If you were born after 1990 you probably don’t. Fashion was seasonal and in comparison to today, It was ‘slow’.

Stores would carry designs for a whole season and there would be ample time to think about your purchases. Trends were dominant but longer lasting and often easily identifiable from decade to decade. Today, fashion is completely different. A melting pot of trends that can change weekly…. Or daily, depending on the brand.

Today, instead of two fashion seasons a year, there are 52 seasons a year. There are new designs hitting the shop floor every week. Faster than we, as consumers, can keep up with. We see trend after trend passing by us from one week to the next and this results in us feeling that the items we purchased just a few months or even weeks ago feel ‘old’ and ‘out of trend’. It also gives us a greater sense of urgency to buy, and buy on impulse because we risk missing the opportunity to buy the piece.

Have you ever looked in your wardrobe and felt you had nothing to wear? Even after shopping less than a week before? That’s the work of fast fashion and the millions of dollars they pay everyday to make sure you feel discontent with your wardrobe.

This is exasperated by the fastest of the fast-fashion brands. The ecommerce sites who have taken ‘new in’ to an all new level with new designs arriving on site every single day. Giving us fashion week 365 days a year and in the process turning us once fashion lovers into fashion consumers with little love or emotional attachment to the pieces that we buy.

Fast fashion through the ages.

The 19th Century

Fast fashion as a concept can be seen very obviously from 1980’s onwards, however, it’s evolution started long before that. Fast fashion is the product of an increasingly efficient supply chain. The evolution of the fashion supply chain dates back to the 1800’s and since then it has become faster, increased production output, and more exploitative.

To give you some context, before a streamlined fashion supply chain, people who raise sheep, get wool, spin yarn, and produce (as we would call today) made clothing to order, meeting their needs and only producing again when the clothes had been completely worn out.

This all changed with the birth of the industrial revolution. Textile machines could now produce clothing on mass, breaking away from the ‘made to order’ model to a ‘ready to wear’ model where clothes could be made in bulk and in a range of sizes.

Copyright A.M. Ahad/Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Probably the most significant innovation that propelled us towards fast fashion was the invention of the sewing machine which was introduced in the late 1840’s. It was with this that the price of clothing fell rapidly. Time is money, and it took a lot less time to produce garments with a sewing machine than by hand.

Like today, the couture houses continued to produce hand-crafted pieces for the wealthy, but local dressmakers now began to produce in bulk, often hiring teams of seamstresses in house to produce the clothing and serving mainly middle class women. Members of poorer households at this time would still produce their own clothing.

The practice of outsourcing, that is to hire an outside team of workers to produce the clothing for the dressmaker, and sell these in store, also started at this time. These outsourced works were known as ‘sweaters’. ‘Sweaters’ worked in their own home for very low wages. Garment workers producing at home is a practice that is hidden, but very much still active today in the fashion industry.

Early 20th Century

In the early 20th Century, despite transformative innovations in fashion, most clothing was still produced by small teams of local dressmakers or in the home. World War II brought with it restrictions on material resources and a necessity for more functional attire. Changes seen throughout the war became commonplace as peacetime flourished and mass produced, standardised clothing became more appealing to consumers, unsurprising for economies that had suffered during the war.

The Triangle Shirtwaiste Factory fire in 1911, sadly not the worst incident within the fast fashion industry.

Towards the mid 20th Century, local workshops were growing into small garment factories but this was not without its downfalls. Industrialisation that had not yet come to grips with health and safety saw tragic consequences, most notably the fire that broke out in New York’s Triangle Shirtwaiste Factory in 1911. This was an unprecedented tragedy that resulted in the death of 146 garment workers and was a catalyst to health and safety reforms as well as improvements in workers rights. We wish we could say incidents of this nature were a thing of the past but as recently as 2013 fashion saw its most catastrophic tragedy when the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh killing 1,130 people and injuring hundreds more.

These workshops began to grow in both employee size and production capacity and fast-fashion as we know it today, began.

1960s-2000s

The 1960’s brought with it somewhat of a cultural renaissance and fashion was front and centre of that. There was a rise in demand for cheaply made clothes which in many ways was a reflection of an increasingly equal society. The ability to wear something that looked and felt luxurious was no longer out of reach for the middle and working classes and this kind of democratisation of fashion was welcomed by the masses with open arms.

This spike in demand for mass produced, affordable fashion put pressure on the fashion industry and instead of growing the local garment economy locally it became cheaper for European and American brands to outsource their production to developing countries such as China, India, and Bangladesh.

There are several key brands who, depending on the article / book / conversation, are credited with creating the fast fashion model. Zara, H&M & Primark (or ‘Penneys’ if you’re Irish). H&M is by establishment the oldest, having started in 1947 as Hennes & Mauritz in 1947. Primark was 1969 and Zara, 1974. Their brand stories all tell of humble beginnings in Europe, starting with one small store and a rise to global corporations. The truth is less inspirational.

Mass-production quickly gained a familiar face.

In the US there were already stores selling mass-produced clothing, they just didn’t have the brand power that the likes of Zara have developed overtime. And at the end of the day these businesses scaled because they outsourced their labour to developing countries to which consumers and governments turned a blind eye. It’s now, knowing the pollution and human rights violations of this business model that both government and citizens are now having to rebuild a broken system.

Where does the term ‘fast fashion’ come from?

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when ‘fast fashion’ was crowned as a term but after Amancio Ortega (founder of Zara) opened their New York flagship in New York in 1990. The New York Times described the brand’s mission as ‘fast fashion’ knowing Ortega built Zara on the principle of: make speed the driving force. And it was fast. New trends could go from drawing board to production to shop floor in two weeks.

The 90’s and 2000’s saw it become socially acceptable to buy cheap clothing. Before this the fashion industry was still dominated by luxury and many felt their clothes represented their status and purchasing power, thus buying cheap clothing could be a source of embarrassment, something that people would prefer to hide. When the likes of Zara and H&M were worn by celebrities it became a source of pride to flaunt what you have bought for ‘just £5’.

For all the harm that fast fashion has done both socially and environmentally, it would be irresponsible not to address how it has allowed people, regardless of background or wealth, to enjoy fashion. Democratisation of fashion is important for people’s self expression and mental wellbeing. However, it is not the sheer volume of first-hand clothing that we consume that is the problem. The challenge in fixing a broken system is; How do we keep fashion democratic without human or environmental exploitation?

The Brands

Which brands make fast fashion?

Fast fashion is a term used to describe the fashion brands that continuously churn out cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed. Some of the best known fast fashion brands include Zara, H&M, Fashion Nova, Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing.

How do they do it?

For many fast fashion brands today getting a product from design to shop floor in a few days is common. To increase speed brands such as Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing have moved production more local, mainly Leicester in the UK, and with it have continued the practice of low pay, exploitation but without the need to wait for orders to be shipped or flown from halfway across the world.

The rationale for such rapid turnaround is to be the first brand to replicate a design worn by a celebrity. For example: if Rihanna wears a jewel encrusted denim jacket on Saturday brands want jewel encrusted denim jacket replicates flying off the shelves (or virtual shelves) by Friday.

For years, this behaviour happening in our own cities has been ignored. In May 2018, the Financial Times published a piece of investigative journalism into the exploitation of garment factory workers by Boohoo in Leicester, UK. These are known as ‘Dark Factories’. The initial shock by the media, government and consumers alike faded quickly. It was during the Coronavirus pandemic that Boohoo was yet again caught out for its blatant exploitative conditions, having garment workers continue to work in unsafe conditions, disregarding government Covid-19 guidelines. Leicester saw one of the worst Coronavirus infection rates in the UK. There was outrage… But here we are, just months later and Boohoo is stronger than ever.

How to spot a fast fashion brand.

There are some key factors that are common to Fast Fashion brands:

How quickly does ‘new in’ become ‘so last season’?

Thousands of styles, which touch on all the latest trends. Go to any fast fashion ecommerce site now and see how many items are listed as ‘new’. It can be in the thousands. If a brand is constantly advertising new items, they are a fast fashion brand.

Extremely short turnaround time between when a trend or garment is seen on the catwalk, or in celebrity media, and when it hits the shelves.
Find out: Do brands you like promote seasonal collections or do trends appear daily?

Offshore manufacturing where labour is the cheapest, with the use of workers on low wages without adequate rights or safety, as well as complex supply chains with poor visibility beyond the first tier and of subcontracting. Although there is a deliberately opaque supply chain with many brands, in recent years there has been an effort to move this exploitation closer to home.
Find out: Check the label on the clothes you are wearing. Where are they made? Do some research on the labour conditions in that country and see if the brand has any transparent information about the factories they work with on their website.
Limited quantity of a particular garment – this is an idea pioneered by Zara. With new stock arriving in store every few days, shoppers know (even if this is subconscious) that if they don’t buy something they like they will probably miss their chance – the next time they are in the shop or on the website the item will be discontinued, sold out, or too difficult to find among the clutter of options.
Try this out: Next time you are shopping take some time to think. Do you really need this? Will you wear this more than 30 times? Let it go and set a reminder to think about purchasing this in 2 weeks time. In two weeks think about if you still really want it? And, can you even find it on the brand’s site? Brands are masters in pushing us to impulse buy. Resist them.
Cheap, low-quality materials, where clothes degrade after just a few wears and get thrown away.
Find out: Check the material label on your clothes. If they are made from one material eg. cotton or viscose, this is better than blended materials eg. 40% cotton and 60% polyester. When fibers are blended together it is very difficult as thus, not economically viable to recycle these textiles. Blended fabrics often end up in landfill because it is too much effort to rescue the fabric.

The fast fashion industry relies on people constantly buying new clothing so they would not be doing themselves a favour by making long lasting, good quality clothing. Why? Because you would probably keep wearing them and wait longer to buy another piece.

Instead of designing for longevity (to last a long time) fast-fashion brands will use cheap materials that are likely to fall apart after just a few washes. The saddest thing is, most people wear these items so little (on average a fast-fashion piece is worn less than 7 times) that they never get to the point of even feeling frustrated that the piece fell apart and didn’t last.

Who owns fast-fashion?

A lot of the fast fashion brands we are familiar with, some of which I have already mentioned, are owned by what are called larger ‘parent groups’. This means that there are lots of brands out there that, on the face of it, seem completely independent, but ultimately at the top they are owned by just a handful of people.

This is not always the case, there are some fast-fashion brands that are not part of a fashion ‘group’ such as Fashion Nova and we will focus specifically on fast fashion rather than luxury brands.

The four main groups are H&M, Inditex, Arcadia and Boohoo

H&M and Boohoo may be familiar to you, as these are household brand names but Inditex and Arcadia are less familiar. These are what we call parent companies.

What is a parent company?

A parent company is a company that owns enough voting stock in another firm to control management and operation by influencing or electing its board of directors. Companies that operate under this kind of management (underneath a parent group) are deemed subsidiaries of the parent company.

These parent companies own a group of smaller companies. In this case it would mean one brand owning several fashion brands and if you buy from just one of these brands the person at the top who owns the entire group will benefit and ultimately profit.

It’s important to understand this because if a parent company owns a group of clothing brands where some are sustainable and some are not sustainable or ethical, if you buy from a ‘sustainable’ clothing brand you could still find that your money ultimately goes to a billionaire that runs several fast-fashion brands anyway.

Parent Company Spotlight 1: H&M

The H&M group own: H&M, COS, Monki, Weekday, & Other Stories, Cheap Monday, H&M Home and ARKET.

H&M was founded by Swedish Businessman Erling Persson who passed away in 2002. The majority ownership is now the Persson family - mainly Stefan Persson who has an estimated net worth of $14.8 billion and his son Karl-Johan Persson is the CEO of H&M.

Parent Company Spotlight 2: Inditex

The Inditex group own: Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe

Amancio Ortega owns 59% of the Inditex company and for him it all started with Zara (he is the founder of Zara). His Net worth is estimated at $62 billion… he is one of the richest men in the world.

Parent Company Spotlight 3: Arcadia

The Arcadia group own: Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, Wallis and the out of town chain Outfit - Outfit basically sells all of the Arcadia group’s brands in one place.

The chairperson of Arcadia is Philip Green. It is unclear how his personal ownership is structured. If you want to know more about Philip Green, google him as there has been a lot of controversy surrounding him (and his taxes) in the past few years. His net worth is estimated at $4.9 billion.

Parent Company Spotlight 4: Boohoo Group

The Boohoo Group owns: Boohoo, boohooMAN, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal, MissPap and Karen Millen and Coast brands

It’s valued at $3.8 billion.

Fun fact then - Boohoo was founded by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, and Pretty Little Thing was founded by Umar Kamani who is Mahmud’s son. Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing are the same family.

What is the solution?

With fast fashion we are buying new trends more, wearing them less, and disposing of more.

Offshore manufacturing where labour is the cheapest, with the use of workers on low wages without adequate rights or safety is what produces the bulk of these clothing.

It's clear that if we want to keep enjoying fashion and the planet, we need to slow it down.

And we need to slow it down… fast.

What is Fast Fashion?