Welcome back, here are three questions I would like to cover today...
1. When did fast-fashion become a thing?
2. How big is the fast-fashion market?
3. Is fast-fashion still a growing industry?
4. How is it possible to produce new items every week?
First question, when did fast-fashion start and become a thing?
In order to understand that, we have to go back to the 1800s to understand how clothes were designed and produced back then. There was no such thing as over-producing and over-consuming. Most of the clothing was made by hand at home by the women of the house. The materials were all "natural" fabrics, for example, wool and linen were most common, with cotton and silk were scarcer and more expensive. A wide variety of colors were available using natural dyes, and hundreds of weaves and patterns were possible by hand. Making one piece of clothing took a long time, money and energy. So, people mended it and were taken care of until it was no longer wearable.
Now fast-forward to the 1900s. Still, garments were made individually for a specific person. Then in the mid-20th century, mills and factories were built to make ready-made garments for the mass. The ones who worked to produce ready-made garments were immigrant women and children. This is the era when so-called “mass production” became a thing. Child labour became a problem in the fashion industry at this time.
Then, fast-forward again to the early 2000s. Fast-fashion started from these four capitals; New York, Paris, Milan, and London. These four capitals held fashion shows. People were into the latest trends. However, the runway brands are high price and high quality, and many people could not afford them. That is when operators of fashion retails came up with the idea of making replicas of the latest trends with lower quality standards.
How is it possible to produce new items every week?
The bottom line is, mass-production became a thing in the 1900s, and replicas of the latest trends became a thing in the 2000s. Combining the two elements created what is now called fast-fashion.
Moving on to the second question and third question.
How big is the fast fashion market? And is fast-fashion still a growing industry?
Business Wire explains, “the global fast fashion market is expected to grow from $25.09 billion in 2020 to $30.58 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9%. The growth is mainly due to the companies resuming their operations and adapting to the new normal while recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $39.84 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 7%.”
From the explanation above, it is clear that the fast fashion industry is becoming an enormous market and is expected to grow and become even bigger.
Hayes, A. (2021, April 29). Fast Fashion Definition. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fast-fashion.asp.
Global Fast Fashion Market Report (2021 to 2030) - COVID-19 Growth and Change - ResearchAndMarkets.com. Business Wire. (2021, May 24). https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210524005342/en/Global-Fast-Fashion-Market-Report-2021-to-2030---COVID-19-Growth-and-Change---ResearchAndMarkets.com.
Ocomen, A. (2020, December 1). The History of Fast Fashion. TUGI. https://www.theurbangardeninitiative.org/blog/the-history-of-fast-fashion.
Idacavage, S. (2016, June 8). Fashion History Lesson: The Origins of Fast Fashion. Fashionista. https://fashionista.com/2016/06/what-is-fast-fashion.
This is an interesting history of the development of fast fashion. One thing that seems to be left out is the factors that helped make "fast fashion" cheap and readily available. It seems to me that inexpensive synthetic materials were a big factor in making fast fashion so accessible to the masses but also the fact that assembling the clothing can be done so cheaply through the sweat of exploited labor, much of it in developing countries.
ReplyDeleteWhen you quote passages, quotes shouldn't be longer than 4 lines. Anything longer than that should be paraphrased. A quote of nearly 100 words is way too long. That will be the expectation when you write your thesis in Academic Writing.