What is Fast Fashion and where has it come from?

Definition:
Fast Fashion is a contemporary term used by fashion retailers to express that designs move from catwalk quickly to capture current fashion trends. Fast fashion clothing collections are based on the most recent fashion trends presented at fashion week in both the spring an autumn of every year.

So what is fast fashion? Why is the fashion industry so overcome by it? Is it due to quicker design turn around times, with well known high-street stores, such as H&M, Zara, Topshop etc. having new items in store or online at least every two weeks, is it something that we've become accustom to so is now a consumer demand that lies heavily upon the Fashion Industry? What happened to the make do and mend moto or has society and social circumstances alongside the economy changed that much over the past few decades that fast fashion is now a way of life?

I've been recently reading through a book on fast fashion by Clare Press and Sarah Wilson called "Wardrobe Crisis: How We Went From Sunday Best To Fast Fashion" on behalf of my research for my group project and it brought up some interesting points about how we regard the clothes within our wardrobes today and how we all seem to have fallen into this trap of Fast Fashion.

Clare writes in regard to getting dressed for a party back in the summer of 2013 " For the life of me I could not find a particular gold lame' blouse with a ruffled collar id worn precisely twice before. I wore a different metallic blouse, but I was sad about it...The next day I was walking past my local laundry when the owner darted into the street " you left your stuff here before Christmas, you pay?" she said. Sixty bucks later, I stumbled out carrying what felt like a body bag. Through the sweating

plastic I spied the ruffled blouse. It was snagged on one elbow. I've chucked stuff out on the mere rumour of a hole. And apparently I value my clothes so little I can forget about huge piles of them languishing in the laundry. I didn't mend the blouse (I stuffed it in a charity box.)" (Page 9).

If we didn't live in a world where fast fashion was such a normal everyday thing, that bag that Clare left in the laundrette over Christmas, would have left her with no clothes to wear and would have been a lot more valuable to her and her everyday life, and the ruffled shirt she couldn't find would have left her I a lot more of an emotional state, but everything is replaceable in todays day and age, especially clothes where you can easily pick up the same shirt if not very similar from a clothing store the day after loosing/damaging it. People don't mend clothes anymore, because it's cheaper to throw them out and rebuy them than it is to do a botched up job of trying to fix even your more favourite blouse. 

But why? Why have things changed? "It is a common affliction, this obsession with getting more clothes. The average woman wear just 40 percent of those she owns" Page 10. And I can believe it, I have clothes in my draws and in my wardrobe that I haven't worn for years or at all, to the point where they still have the tag on them when I put them in a charity bag. But why? 9/10 it's not because that particular garment doesn't fit me anymore, but because they've gone out of fashion and as I touched upon briefly in my last post, as a professional within the fashion industry, I don't believe that I could be seen in anything that was necessarily deemed "last season". But once again why?

"According to British Journalist, Ivay Siegle, "We have more clothes than any other time in history, but have become less and less fulfilled and secure in our purchases, precisely because we have become such passive consumers. We watch, we follow, we pick of the rail and - herd like -  we find ourselves at the cash till." (Page 11). We don't buy things anymore particularly because we love them and want to wear them over and over for years to come, but because they're in fashion and we wish to achieve social acceptance within the world through our wardrobe choices, but what's so wrong with not following the latest trends?

I think there's much than meets the eye behind the term "fast fashion", and I aim to uncover it through further research, as I don't believe that this will just only help my group project, but also uncover perhaps some consumer behaviour and understanding for my own personal MA project.

Jess xo