Fast Fashion Is Originally A Product Of Demand

Can "fast fashion" make a comeback at a time when "sustainable fashion" is becoming more and more popular?

In fact, the term originated from the "Fast Fashion" in Europe in the 20th century, which put the design of the seasonal fashion week on the shop at the cheapest production cost, so that customers can quickly catch the latest international fashion trends. In the United States, "fast fashion" is called "Speed to Market". The British Guardian has created a new word "McFashion", which refers to "selling" fashion like McDonald's. Today, "fast fashion" provides current popular styles and elements, which are characterized by low prices, more styles and less quantities, stimulate consumers' interest and meet their needs to the maximum extent. It can be said that fast fashion is the product of the four social trends of globalization, democratization, youth and networking.

Fast fashion was put forward in the 1950s. Clothing retailers imitated the fashion trend elements in high-end fashion shows at the fastest speed, redesigned and produced them, sold them to the public at an accessible price, and benefited from them. The fast fashion style of clothing retail industry can not grow without the influence of social environment changes. The polarization of society has exacerbated the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Low income people will pay more attention to affordable goods. At this time, fast fashion brand clothing came into being. The characteristics of the changed types of clothing are diverse styles, rapid updates, and low prices. These characteristics meet the consumer demand of the public to a certain extent and greatly stimulate the consumer's desire to buy.

Since then, fast fashion has gone through different stages of development with the evolution of the era of "people and life".

Faster than fast, the golden age of "fast fashion"

2000-2010 is an important period for fast fashion brands to enter the Chinese market for the first time and develop rapidly. The first choice is to enter Shanghai, the gathering place of Chinese fashion. In 2002, Uniqlo opened its first two stores in Shanghai, officially entering China; In 2005, MUJI Muji opened a store in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, bringing the Japanese lifestyle of minimalism into mainland China; In 2006, ZARA opened offline stores in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai; In 2007, H&M also officially entered the Chinese market, with its first store on Huaihai Road; In the same year, the first physical store of C&A from the Netherlands opened in Lujiazui Zhengda Plaza; In 2008, British Marks&Spencer also opened the first mainland store in Nanjing West Road; In 2010, American fast fashion representative GAP opened 4 offline stores in Beijing and Shanghai at the same time.

With H&M, Zara, Gap, Forever 21 and other fast fashion giants entering the Chinese market, they have attracted countless young people. In 2013, the sales volume of major fast fashion brands rose steadily, and stores grew rapidly to occupy shopping malls in major cities, ushering in the golden age of fast fashion in China.

The reason behind the rapid development of fast fashion is the rapid response of design and production. This is also an important difference between fast fashion retailers and non fast fashion brands. Fast fashion brands optimize the supply chain so that they can quickly and cheaply design and produce clothes that follow the fashion trend and attract mainstream consumers at a lower price, Shorten the time to market. Taking ZARA as an example, the ultra fast supply chain model can be said to be a hybrid model, which includes both the traditional outsourcing process and the company's internal integration of upstream and downstream integrated production process. Under the constraint of small batch production, ZARA adopts vertical integrated production for the most sensitive styles to new trends. The core design and production are completed within ZARA, and the quality and speed can be well controlled. ZARA has outsourced the design part to the nearest supplier in the market, which has reached a high timeliness, so as to achieve a relative balance between fast and fashion. Low cost production reflects ZARA's fashion "parity" feature. Finally, ZARA's own factories are highly automated and specialized according to the type of clothing, and focus on capital intensive links in the production process, such as style design, tailoring, processing and inspection. On this basis, the construction of the high-speed supply chain puts forward high requirements for the connectivity and information processing capacity of all links.

Success or failure, the end of "fast fashion"

Today, the global annual consumption of clothing has reached 80 billion pieces, an increase of nearly 400% over 30 years ago. Some fast fashion brands have as many as 18 new series of products every year, while Zara can develop 40000 new clothes every year, and actually launch 12000 to 20000 new clothes, with an average of more than 30 styles every day. To a certain extent, this has formed a huge pressure on resource consumption. Therefore, after the rapid development of fast fashion and expansion of its business landscape, fast fashion retail in China has not been able to continue to expand, and fast fashion giants have reduced and closed offline stores in recent years.

For example, Mango, a Spanish fast fashion brand, has stopped its offline stores in Beijing and its stores in Guangzhou, Xi'an and Hohhot after closing its stores in Beijing Jindi Center and West Hongmen Huiju. At present, Mango only has one store in Yantai Joy City which is still in operation. In fact, Mango fell into recession early in China. From 2013 to 2015, the number of stores dropped rapidly from more than 200 to 61. Mango has planned to "give up" the Chinese market. Toni Ruiz, its CEO, said in an interview with Reuters in March 2023 that the brand would not give priority to this market in the next three years. As early as 2021, Bershka, Pull&Bear and Stradivarius under Inditex Group closed all physical stores in China. From July 31, 2022, these three brand online stores stopped selling, marking their withdrawal from the Chinese market.

How can "fast fashion" be reborn by taking advantage of sustainable Dongfeng?

European and American fast fashion has been developing rapidly in China for more than 20 years, but has the glory of fast fashion really passed? According to the consulting data of Ai Media, the retail sales of clothing commodities above the designated size in China will reach 997.46 billion yuan in 2021. It is expected to reach 1107.18 billion yuan in 2025, and huge market demand is in front of us. Although overseas fast fashion brands are not developing well, domestic e-commerce platforms are all eyeing fast fashion. In half a year, Byte has laid out fast fashion twice in a row, formed a self-supporting clothing team, and recently launched a store called "Feiyun Weaving" in the Diaoyin APP. Taobao launched its own fast fashion clothing store "ifashion" offline and online. Jingdong and Pinduoduo also have relevant layout at home and abroad.

The traditional fast fashion is no longer favored by the younger generation of consumers, because different times have different backgrounds and different intergenerational consumption views. The post-70s "provincial first", the post-80s "quality first", the post-90s "uninhibited personality", Gen Z "national trend", etc. are the products of different intergenerational consumption concepts. In addition to the general trend, consumption concepts such as "green environmental protection" and "sustainable consumption" are also becoming popular fashion trends.

On the one hand, fast fashion still has a huge market demand. On the other hand, sustainable fashion will become a "compulsory" course from an "optional" course. Consumers' sense of responsibility is improving. The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. There are also problems of high waste and harsh treatment of labor, which is one of the important obstacles to the sustainable transformation of the fashion industry. With the approaching of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the climate goals proposed in the Paris Agreement, it has become increasingly urgent to promote the sustainable transformation of the fashion industry. Consumers want to know whether the fabric source is sustainable, whether the production process is environmentally friendly, and whether the enterprise has a sense of social responsibility when purchasing.

Left: Fili Pari Right: The cactus of Angela Roy

After experiencing the New Year Crown epidemic, consumers need more sustainable fashion brands. Fortunately, nearly 80% of Chinese consumers will check and avoid plastic materials when buying fashion items, and nearly half of them have purchased second-hand goods and organic materials in the past two years. The use of green organic materials is the main purchase factor for almost all consumers who pay attention to "sustainable fashion"; In contrast, millennials have the highest awareness of the "green (production) process". This shows that fast fashion has not withdrawn from the stage, but needs to meet the current social environment and consumer needs with higher requirements. Fast fashion+sustainability has become the latest fashion ecology, and more and more traditional fast fashion brands and new brands have begun to make changes to join the trend of sustainable fashion.

The main fabric of the environmental protection capsule series launched by UR continuously is a new environmental protection fabric, REPREVE recycled polyester, which is certified by the international GRS and recycled from recycled plastic bottles. In fabric procurement and research and development, UR is committed to finding a greener and more environmentally friendly development direction; Fili Pari is a fashion technology startup founded by two alumni of the Milan Institute of Technology. Its Mackintosh shoes, coats and accessories are all made of marble powder; The cactus of Angela Roy's handbag, messenger bag and shoulder bag are made of cactus. The brand is committed to the use of non animal materials, such as vegetarian cactus derived leather, which is created through the slow process of manual picking of raw materials and drying; Ground Cover ranges from pineapple leather to linen, cactus skin to various types of cotton. Although there is no more animal fiber at all, steel, cork insoles, cotton laces and microfiber linings make these boots durable.

Fast fashion was originally a product of demand. As a relatively young style, it has always been welcomed by young consumers. Changing style and high cost performance are its advantages that cannot be ignored. However, with the change of economic level, social environment and consumer cognition, the survival of fast fashion is also facing huge challenges. Sustainable fashion is a must for brand development, but how to attract and retain consumers in the highly competitive fashion industry is the main topic of brand survival.