Fast fashion

Over the past two decades, shopping has become easier, faster and more digital. Many people are no longer shopping for clothes – they are shopping for content to share with the world. Companies like Shein and ASOS have built their business model around the seemingly insatiable demand from a certain group of consumers. By digitalizing large parts of their business and working directly with many manufacturers, these companies have been able to reduce prices and production times. Producing small batches of clothes (just 50-100 each time) and often cutting corners to manufacture affordable items quickly, these fast fashion companies have adopted the ‘test and repeat’ model made famous by Inditex and H&M, but now at a much higher pace. However, they face a trade-off between offering ever-lower prices and becoming more sustainable. The large quantities produced, and clothes’ potentially short lifetimes negatively impact the environment. We have written about which improvements can be made in our white paper ‘The future of fashion’.