The Impact of Fast Fashion on the Fashion Industry

Fast fashion refers to fashion or fashion business that reflects the latest trends in fashion with a relatively inexpensive price, and a fast turnover of fast goods. It was named fast fashion meaning fast and rapid circulation like fast food. This essay will outline the effects of fast fashion on the fashion industry and evaluate the positives and negatives of fast fashion. Furthermore, it will conclude that ‘Fast fashion’ brings negative effects on the fashion industry so customers and fashion brands might realize riskiness and try to pursue a rational consumption and production as much as possible.

In recent years, fast fashion has impacted significantly on the fashion industry as much as it is the fastest-growing trend in the world. There are some representative brands like Zara, H&M, Gap, and Primark which are reflected the rapid lifestyle and consumer demand. This kind of brand uses a new system that supplies new products constantly to get out of a traditional system which is divided into two seasons with S/S and F/W. There are a few strategic nature of these brands. Firstly, they have various compositions of commodities in every fashion area. In the case of Zara, for example, they produce a new product about 20 times a year (Martin, Robert& Helen, 2004). Some of the hottest items are only modified the color, style, and materials. And also, for producing new products quickly, each fast fashion brands use a various source of information. According to the research of Taeim and Kyuhwa (2010), in the design team of Zara, about 200 people are hired and among them 55~66 people tend to design, approximately 20 people investigate the trend in the street.

The second nature of fast fashion is that they use a sale promotion strategy through the VMD(Visual Merchandising Display) rather than other media advertising for leading customers. The shop operation of fast fashion brands is as in the following. First, arrange a large store to increase the length of stay time of customers. Second, use various product display methods. Even the same product is exposed to customers in different ways, therefore, it increases the possibility of purchase. Third, fast fashion brands usually sell cheap products, but they seek the luxury of a store image. Fourth, use lighting properly. Display many kinds of products in a wide store and focus more attention by lighting a specific product. Fifth, decorate the store interior to encourage high purchase. The counter is located in a prominent position to facilitate rapid and convenient counting and packaging for customers. In addition, the fitting room is built to let many customers try on the clothes.(Taeim and Kyuhwa, 2010) On average, the customer pursues products from fast fashion brands due to the reasonable prices with the latest trends regardless of age. As shown in the graph, the consumers select them due to the price and trendy style.

One of the greatest merits of fast-fashion brands is reasonable prices. Commonly fast fashion is also called ‘the disposable fashion’ because customers can use things just one time and then throw them away when they feel is done with no pressure. There are some management philosophies of some fast fashion brands. For H&M is that “fashion and quality at the best price.” and for Zara is “good design and good quality at a good price.” What they mean best price is one of the biggest reasons for their success. Furthermore, as this table is shown, there is no limited age or job. In other words, regardless of gender, age, or job, it is easy to access high-quality design and the latest trends. On the other hand, although, there are a lot of customers who purchase from fast fashion brands, there are a ton of problems of fast fashion not only in the fashion industry but also in other areas.

Regarding the negative impacts on the fashion industry, there is a serious problem of fashion crimes and fashion victims. One of the enormous problems in the fashion industry is the copyright of brands. As the picture showed, it has almost the same appearance. From the article of Are High-Fashion Copies Actually Legal? by Nia, there is comments. 'Copyright has an intent behind it, and the intent is to protect creators so that they continue creating. What we looked at when we looked at the fashion industry, we saw an industry that was very very creative, and puts out tons of new ideas every season and has done that continuously for decades. It seems like an industry that is doing very well without copyright protection, and in fact, we think it does well because there is no copyright protection,' said Raustiala. In addition, there are some fashion victims. Elizabeth claims that there is someone who damaged the clothing industry such as a forever 21 designer who never properly designed, used clothing factory owners and second-hand retailers.

Moreover, another significant problem with fast fashion is environmental pollution. Fashion pollution means environmental pollution from the clothing production process. Fast Fashion is the primary cause of fashion pollution. Quantities of a waste of clothes cause infection, but the production process such as growing cotton and dying for a quick production cause pollution as well. It may not ring true, but this problem will be a threat in the future. Cotton is the most polluting, chemically intensive crop grown by man. 10% use of agricultural chemical, 25% use of insecticide in the world are used for growing cotton. Also, the Aral Sea which was the fourth-largest sea in the world and beautiful became a desolate desert by greedy people who wanted to make a cotton farm.

Finally, there is the exploitation of labor. According to Lucy (2011), almost 20 to 60 percent of garments at home are sewn by informal laborers. Countless fast fashions are luring consumers with stunning designs at affordable prices. Consumers may be pleased to have a cheap price for pretty clothes. But a strange pattern of price reductions when prices are clearly on the rise is possible only after someone sacrifices it. The sacrifice of Cambodian clothing workers, who can not afford to buy a pair of their own clothes even though they work all month long, is a beauty of clothing and a cheap price. Today, they are devoted to sewing machines for most of their lives. Bangladesh has four million clothing workers, whose minimum wage is about 0.17 pounds per hour. In addition, several fast fashion companies refused to sign the Bangladesh Convention, which said it would increase the safety of factories there.

In conclusion, this essay has defined the impact of fast fashion on the fashion industry. It is impossible for fast fashion to disappear, but efforts to reduce it can be needed. As mentioned, ‘Fast fashion’ brings several negative effects on the fashion industry so customers and fashion brands might realize riskiness and try to pursue rational consumption and production as much as possible.