How Fast-Fashion Has Taken Over

The rise in fast fashion over the last 10 years has been staggering. It’s changed the way we spend our money, shopping habits, and dress sense. So, what is it exactly?

Fast fashion refers to the life-cycle of clothes. Clothes are being designed, manufactured and sold in record times. It’s seen as an unsustainable industry due to the nature of the process, whereby the clothes are often poorer quality so disregarded quicker.

The Impact on Fashion

The fashion industry revolves around high-fashion, premium designers and runway shows. What trickles down to the high-street is completely inspired by designer brands. However, it’s not just the high-street shops that are rapidly producing clothing. Online stores have become more popular than ever, brands like BooHoo, InTheStyle, Missguided and FashionNova are amongst many others that have disrupted the fashion industry. These brands are partly responsible for this fast-fashion revolution.

In many ways, the quality of clothing has been compromised. Luxury retailers source their materials from reputable sources. For example, when it comes to women’s designer swimwear, there is a minimum standard of quality deemed acceptable by designer brands. However, if you take regular swimwear from the high-street, it’s often made from worse quality materials meaning it’s replaced often by the consumer.

Changing Habits

Before the online fashion stores took over, consumers were reliant on getting all apparel from the physical stores. Now, new clothes are easily ordered online at the click of a button; and they can even arrive the following day. The influx in fast-fashion shows that most consumers aren’t fussed about the quality of their clothes, choosing speed over quality.

Fashion retailers are often under pressure to compete with each other, producing imitated clothes from designers extremely fast to keep up with demand. Not only has fast-fashion changed the buying habits for consumers, but it’s also changed the habits of retailers who may be struggling to keep up.

What’s Next?

Designer brands are still doing just fine, setting the bar for the rest of the retailers to follow. As long as the demand is there, fast-fashion won’t be going anywhere. In fact, many start-up fashion companies have appeared online over the past year, trying to get a slice of the action.