Fast-Fashion Brands, Definition, Environmental Impact
Everything to Know About Fast Fashion and How to Avoid It
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Fast fashion is clothing that responds to current trends quickly and at a low cost. Though several people contributed to its rise, the current state of the industry is often credited to Amancio Ortega, the founder of Inditex, the parent company of Zara. Ortega understood that having a flexible business model that could change with the incoming trends was a way to keep customers coming back often. In the years since, brands like Shein have modernised that model using technology and social media to recognise trends and bring them to market even faster than before.
"Fast fashion was created with a goal to get us as shoppers buying more, disregarding regularly, and moving onto their next 'trend' continually — without much thought into where and how these garments are made," explains a spokesperson for Fashion Revolution, an organisation that seeks to raise awareness about the systemic challenges facing the global fashion industry. "Fast-fashion companies cut corners to try and make more money, and with that, they use cheap-quality fabrics and cheap labour, leading to exploitation of people and the planet."
Fast fashion is cheap and trendy, and it's constantly evolving. To do that, though, labour rights and sustainability are often ignored.