Fast fashion refers to the rapid response of clothing companies to fashion trends by frequently replenishing their stores weekly or even daily with new styles. Spanish chain Zara has been the innovator in fast fashion,1 though closely followed by other European and US global fast fashion giants such as Hennes and Mauritz (H& M), Topshop, Gap and Forever 21. Figure 5.1 demonstrates the relative pricepoint and retail presence of these companies. Although there have been technological advances that have sped up garment production, for example in cutting, the key to fast fashion is in its heightened speed of communication and distribution. Table 5.1 summarise the characteristics of a fast fashion retailer (Tokatli 2007), with crucial points being their increasing numbers of stores globally, and their super-responsiveness to consumer demand. The fast fashion sector worldwide is increasingly dominated by the global mega-brands, as illustrated in Figure 5.1, who have developed complex supply chains able to respond at speed to consumer desire, with the economies of scale necessary to keep their prices low.
1 Bennetton in the 1980s developed strategies which were a forerunner to fast fashion by developing just in time and quick response strategies (e.g. manufacturing greige T-shirts and then dyeing them later to respond to seasonal colour shifts more rapidly) (Glock and Kunz 2000).
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Figure 5.1 Global fast fashion retailer map
Table 5.1 Characteristics of a fast fashion company
Zara has 1700 stores in 78 countries.
2600 stores in 44 countries
Very responsive to customer demand with data rapidly fed to design, buying and production. listed on the stock exchange so under pressure for stock to
Fast fashion’s evolution since the 1980s has a direct correlation with the growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs), which enabled data drawn from both customers and trend forecasters to be rapidly fed to designers, buyers, and manufacturers. Indeed, as the speed of global communication has grown
exponentially, so has the speed of fast fashion into stores. Companies have developed both lean and agile supply chains (leagile) in which small batches of product can be produced more frequently and efficiently (Bruce, Daly and Towers 2004). However, as discussed in Chapter 1, the rise of fast fashion is symptomatic of the shift in post-industrial nations towards constant aesthetic change in ‘cultural’
products, to promote consumption (Scott 2002; Rantisi 2004).
The small runs enable quick injections of fashion-forward product into stores, and also create a sense of scarcity and exclusivity for customers. This is heightened through the trend of limited edition designer collaborations with fast fashion chains (e.g. Karl Lagerfeld for H&M). In the context of sustainability, fast fashion’s
‘just-149
in-time’ (JIT) small runs are more efficient, and hence there is less likelihood of unsold garments being incinerated or drastically marked down. However, the advantage in producing only what customers desire is dissipated by the underlying fast fashion logic in which perceived scarcity propels customers to buy more product, and to return more often to store in order not to ‘miss out’ on limited edition items.
This is evident in Zara’s strategy, in which the sense of scarcity sees customers visit Zara on average seventeen times per year, as opposed to an average of four times a year for other chain stores (Ferdows, Lewis and Machuca 2004).
Prior to the 1980s, mass-market apparel companies followed a Fordist
manufacturing model, in which designs were standardised, slower to change (for example Levis 501 jeans) and manufactured in an assembly-line. There were only two fashion seasons per year (Jackson 2009), and thus apparel was more stable aesthetically, and the delivery schedule for suppliers more regular. In contrast, fast fashion’s supply chains are characterised as ‘post-Fordist’, in that companies draw on global networks of suppliers of varying volumes and specialisations2 (Bhardwaj and Fairhurst 2009). Li and Fung, the network orchestrators described in Chapter 4, typify the post-Fordist supply chain. They provide access to a network of over 8500 suppliers covering homewares, apparel and footwear; however they do not own a single factory themselves, rather:
A specific supply chain is called forth in response to the demand of the customer. Henry Ford told his customers, "they can have any colour they want as long as it’s black." The modern network orchestrator can make a much simpler claim: "You can have almost anything you want. Just say the word and the supply chain will be created. We will build you a virtual factory from a network of suppliers to meet your need (Fung, Fung and Wind 2008, 15).
The case of UK fast fashion chains exemplifies this process, as basics with a longer lead time may be manufactured in China, while smaller runs of more trend focused product will be manufactured closer to home in Turkey or Eastern Europe (Bruce and Daly 2006, 330). Rather than working with a single factory in a fixed location, fast
2 Although Zara is often cited as the exception to the trend for globalisation as the bulk of its product comes from its La Coruna factory, Tokatli (2007) claims that in recent years Zara’s supply chains have evolved to become more globalised, with manufacturing also conducted in Turkey and Romania.
fashion supply chains source products from the suppliers that will best fit their contingent needs.
5.1.1 SHIFT TO CONSUMER-CENTRED, POST-BRAND
Fast fashion has heralded a greater shift within the fashion system towards the needs and desires of consumers (Barnes and Lea-Greenwood 2006). Zara owner Amancio Ortega has commented that “to be successful, ‘you must have five fingers touching the store and five fingers touching the customer’” (Ferdows, Lewis and Machuca 2004, 106). As Ferdows et al (2004) describe, companies such as Zara respond directly to real-time sales data fed from stores to ensure that the product is tailored to each store. This notion of continual engagement with the consumer is the hallmark of fast fashion. Fashion marketer Bill Webb (2007) describes how prior to the 2000s, the role of retail marketing was to educate the consumer in order to convince him or her that they needed the product. Now, as consumers have grown savvier and more focused on lifestyle, Webb claims that the role of retail marketing as a stand-alone job description or department is almost obsolete. It has been replaced by super-responsive supply chains and product development in which all energy is put into first determining what the consumer desires, and then attempting to meet that desire as quickly as possible. In this way, retail marketing is embedded within the design process, and rather than merely being a way to communicate the new styles to consumers after they have been developed, it becomes essential in determining what should be developed in the first place. While fashion companies have long utilised street trendspotters and data from consumers to develop product, in fast fashion this data fundamentally drives the enterprise. Webb frames this shift as a response to a broader societal shift in which consumers are saturated with consumption choices and have become increasingly cynical regarding the claims of brands. An outcome of this is the rise of the ‘hi-lo’ consumer, or as termed in the UK, the Primark-Prada consumer, in which consumers now have little brand loyalty and will shop at all ends of the market (Webb 2007).
Fast fashion’s super-responsiveness to the perceived needs of the individual consumer is, arguably, the logical endpoint of Lipovetsky’s (1994) democratisation of fashion. Webb (2007) claims that we are moving into the era of the ‘individual as brand’. Webb writes, “eventually, we should expect brands to become redundant as
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individuals become their own brands, each and every one of us with our needs and desires individually addressed” (2007, 127). In this reality, it matters less where the product came from, what matters is how the individual consumer mixes and remixes into their own sense of style. Pop culture writer Rob Horning describes fast fashion companies such as Zara and Forever 21 as “post-brand”, in that they make no attempt to foster a brand or lifestyle identity, instead,
They flatter consumers in a different way, immersing them in potential trends on a near weekly basis and trusting them to assemble styles in their own images. Clothes reach stores with practically unspoiled semiotic potential, and consumers are invited to be expressive rather than imitative with the goods, to participate more directly in fashion (2011, 2).
Horning (2011, 2) claims that fast fashion companies allow consumers to be bricoleurs, “work[ing] in lieu of advertisers to reconfigure trends and remix
signifiers, generating new and valuable meanings for goods”. The data gathered from this consumer activity is then fed back to the design rooms and production facilities to generate more designs. The cheapness and rapid change of fast fashion makes this kind of identity play far easier and enables a kind of continual self-improvement and reworking of the self as brand. The fast fashion companies in turn follow the blogs of consumers and respond to the ceaseless, restless identity formation of individuals (for example, see Rocamora 2011). Hence fast fashion is an endpoint for fashion in more ways than one – the shorter trend cycles paradoxically hold both less and more sway than they used, as at any one time there are many different trends to which a fast fashion company may respond3. By virtue of the sheer number of these changing trends, any coherent message for a season is soon replaced within weeks by another, effectively creating an aesthetic ‘white noise’.
3 It is impossible to give a number of fashion trends present in the market at any one time, although Jackson (2009, 170) notes that each of a garment’s elements will be impacted by fashion trends: its colour, fabric, styling details, trims, silhouette and print. The longevity of trends also varies, as a look (whether a colour, a fabric style or other element) will potentially cross into other seasons (Jackson 2009, 171).