The ultra-fast fashion brands most shoppers Bialek’s age would recognize either were in their infant days or had yet to exist at all.
When Bialek was born in 2005, the likes of Zara, Forever 21, and H&M were annually raking in billions of dollars in sales, and proliferating in malls across America and the world. Sixteen-year-old Maddie Bialek does her best to avoid fast fashion, but she can’t remember a time without plentiful, cheaply produced clothes. And these questions they face of personal responsibility and overconsumption have remained unanswered and unsolved by older generations. They have to navigate a world in which trends are more accessible than ever. They are, however, the first to do so during adolescence as a matter of course. Gen Z certainly isn’t the only group buying from these companies or responsible for their continued success (“Most people in the Global North have worn fast fashion in some capacity in the last two decades,” said Aja Barber, a sustainable fashion writer and critic). In reality, the corporate vice-grip of fast fashion is hard to escape, even for a generation made keenly aware of its environmental implications. Even if the materials and labor used to produce fashion are marginally better, it does little to offset the clothing consumption cycle Gen Z was born into. They haven’t, however, pledged to make less. They’ve pledged to be more sustainable and resourceful in public campaigns. Major retailers are investing in sustainable technologies to bulk up their business portfolios. While fast fashion is a relatively young phenomenon, it’s part of a centuries-old industry that has adjusted to its current pace of growth. This has fueled an oft-repeated narrative that Gen Z’s green habits have “killed” or significantly slowed down fast fashion’s global expansion. Gen Z wants similar commitments from the companies they buy from and aren’t afraid to demand it. They are avid thrift store-goers and secondhand shoppers. Yet, marketing research and surveys have found that most young consumers care about sustainability. Shein, the Chinese fast fashion giant, explained Why pay more when you can buy a brand new T-shirt for $5, a dress for $20, or a pair of jeans for $30? Young people are conditioned to accept low prices as the norm some even rely on these depressed costs to access trendy clothes. From 2000 to 2014, the average price of clothing declined in spite of inflation. Gen Z can’t imagine a world without fast fashion because they were born into its heyday. According to Pew Research, members of this demographic were born between the years 19, and grew up under the looming threat of climate change. These retailers have now turned their attention toward Generation Z - the new kids on the block who’ve recently come of spending age. They have names like Boohoo, Fashion Nova, Shein, and Princess Polly, and reached millions of young shoppers through social media, whereas fast fashion’s old guard resided in brick-and-mortar stores. Toward the tail end of the 2010s, “ultra-fast” fashion brands emerged as viable competitors to the dominant fashion empires of the previous decade. The dream of “instant fashion” pioneered by Zara became a reality, and things were only about to get faster. Profits soared, and the number of garments produced from 2000 to 2014 doubled to 100 billion a year.
It was a period of excess for both consumers and retailers. Cheaper was better, of course, from a business perspective.
Retailers migrated their manufacturing process overseas, where labor was cheaper. Zara abandoned the concept of fashion seasons for the thrill of constant novelty.Ī confluence of factors prompted Western designers and retailers - H&M, Forever 21, Gap, to name a few - to follow Zara’s lead in the next decade. It began in the 1990s, so the story goes, when the founder of Zara spun the fast fashion wheel into motion. Garment production has quietly accelerated to breakneck speeds over the past three decades, easing young and old consumers into thinking of their clothes as disposable. This pace is a relatively modern innovation. They buy what’s available, and what’s available is generally fast.
And while these young shoppers are increasingly wary of the evils of fast fashion, they have little room to protest. They became shoppers at the height of its boom: Retailers like ASOS drop at least 5,000 new styles a week, and Shein offers 700 to 1,000 new styles daily. Millions of Americans, specifically those born around or after the year 2000, have never inhabited a world without fast fashion.
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