What actually is fast-fashion?

Fast-fashion this, fast-fashion that. But what actually is fast-fashion?

 

 

The Cambridge Dictionary defines fast-fashion as: 'clothes that are made and sold cheaply, so that people can buy new clothes often'. The term was first coined in the 1990s by the New York Times after Zara opened its doors in New York.

 

Clothes are produced for pennies, which usually is the result of low wages and poor working conditions for garment workers. With rising labour costs and regulations in countries like China and Bangladesh,  brands are now searching for new production sites where labour costs are low, often because there is no legal minimum wage because governments are keen not to discourage foreign investment by increasing these costs.

 

It can take as little as 10 days from initial designs to hitting the shop floors.

 

Have you ever heard of ultra-fast-fashion? This new term is making the rounds, being used to describe a newer and accelerated version of the traditional fast fashion model.  This version, as donned by retailers such as Fashion Nova, Missguided, and Boohoo, as well as Shein and Temu, takes the rapid production and distribution of clothing to an extreme level, with the goal of providing consumers with the latest fashion trends almost immediately after they appear on runways or social media. 

 

How can you avoid fast-fashion? 

Shop second hand via charity shops, vintage shops and sites like eBay, Vinted & Depop.

Support smaller brand where supply chains are visible and processes are more eco-friendly.

Extending the average life of clothes by just nine months would save £5 billion in resources used to supply, launder and dispose of clothing - Oxfam

If the number of times a garment is worn were doubled on average, Greenhouse gas emissions would be 44% lower - Oxfam