Fast Fashion's Impact on Retail Manufacturing and the Environment

What Is Fast Fashion?

Fast fashion dominates the retail world by quickly transforming designs into affordable, trendy clothes for consumers eager for the latest styles. Spurred by innovations in supply chain management and driven by consumer demand for rapid and affordable fashion, fast fashion brands challenge traditional clothing cycles. While this model fuels retail growth and enables affordability, it raises significant concerns about ethical manufacturing practices, environmental harm, and an unsustainable consumer mindset.

An In-Depth Look at Fast Fashion 

The Evolution of Fast Fashion 

Shopping for clothing was once considered an event for which consumers would save over time to buy new clothes periodically. The style-conscious could get a preview of the styles to come by reading fashion magazines and seeing fashion shows that displayed new collections and clothing lines several months before their appearance in stores.

In the late 1990s, as shopping increasingly became a form of entertainment, discretionary spending on clothing increased. Fast fashion emerged, offering cheap, trendy knock-off garments, mass-produced at low cost. Consumers could wear something similar to what they saw on the runway.

Fast Fashion's Rapid Expansion

Fast fashion was boosted by innovations in supply chain management (SCM) among fashion retailers. The assumption is that consumers want high fashion at a low cost. Fast fashion follows the concept of category management, linking the manufacturer with the consumer in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Leading Companies in Fast Fashion 

Major players in the fast fashion market include UNIQLO, GAP, Forever 21, Topshop, Esprit, Primark, Fashion Nova, and New Look. Two of the leaders are:

Zara: Spanish retail chain Zara, the flagship brand of textile giant Inditex, is synonymous with fast fashion. Due to its short supply chain, Zara's designers can have a finished piece appear on store racks in as little as four weeks. Or can modify existing items in as little as two weeks.

More than half of its factories are near its headquarters in A Coruña, Spain, producing over 11,000 pieces annually compared to the industry average of 2,000 to 4,000.

H&M: Founded in 1947, Sweden-based H&M Group (short for Hennes & Mauritz ) is one of the oldest fast fashion companies. As of 2024, H&M Group operated in 76 countries and had over 4,200 stores.

H&M Group operates like a department store, offering clothing, cosmetics, and home goods. Although it owns no factories, it oversees independent suppliers with advanced IT systems for tracking inventory and communicating with headquarters. The factories that it works with are based all over Europe, Asia, and North America.

Weighing the Pros and Cons of Fast Fashion 

Advantages

• Profitable for manufacturers and retailers: The constant introduction of new products encourages customers to frequent stores more often, which means more purchases and growing revenue. The retailer does not replenish its stock—instead, it replaces items that sell out with new items.
• Quick to consumers: Fast fashion enables buyers to get the clothes they want when they want them.
• Makes clothes affordable: Smart, innovative, imaginative new clothes and fun or even impractical items have become more affordable and widely accessible to all consumers.

Disadvantages

• Decline in domestic manufacturing: Fast fashion has contributed to a decline in the U.S. garment industry, where labor laws and workplace regulations are stronger, and wages are better than in other countries.
• Encourages a “throw-away” consumer mentality: Fast fashion has been called disposable fashion. Many fast fashionistas in their teens and early twenties—the age group the industry targets—admit they only wear their purchases once or twice.
• Bad for the environment: Critics contend that fast fashion contributes to pollution, waste, and planned obsolescence due to its cheap materials and manufacturing methods. The garments can't be recycled because they're made predominantly of synthetics (over 60%).
• Unregulated labor practices: Manufacturers in developing countries with little regulation may not oversee subcontractors, enforce workforce rules, or be transparent about their supply chain.
• Intellectual property theft: Some designers allege that their designs have been illegally duplicated and mass-produced by fast fashion companies.

Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion

Consumers may find it difficult to avoid products manufactured by companies that practice fast fashion. However, they can investigate fast fashion brands to see if they use sustainable processes and support fair labor practices. They can determine for themselves the impact that fast fashion may have on the environment and people who work in the industry.

Shopping for clothes at secondhand stores helps to reduce the amount of garment waste and to extend usage.

According to statistics from the United Nations Environment Programme and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation:

• The fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water per year.
• It takes 3,781 liters of water to make one pair of jeans.
• Of all the wastewater in the world, 20% is from textile dyeing and is highly toxic—many countries where clothes are made have reduced or zero regulations for wastewater disposal.
• Microplastic fibers used in clothing make their way to the ocean, amounting to about 500,000 tons—close to 50 billion plastic bottles.
• Fashion manufacturing emits more than 10% of global carbon emissions.
  

Fast Fashion's Final Implications 

Fast fashion thrives on satisfying consumer demand for affordable trendiness and boosts retailer profits through continuous product turnover. However, this growth comes at a significant cost: environmental damage and labor exploitation persist as pressing issues. Companies like Zara and H&M dominate the landscape, yet contribute to unsustainable practices. Awareness of these impacts prompts consumers to weigh their choices. Shopping secondhand or supporting brands with sustainable practices can mitigate individual contributions to the industry's negative effects. As consumers become more informed, the call for accountability and sustainable solutions intensifies.