Cheap "Fast Fashion Brand": A Chronic Plunder?

The "fast fashion" principle of low price and speed challenges the limits of garment workers.

The price of products is astonishing.

Businessmen claim that this is a "fast fashion" era. Anyone can have fashionable products faster, more and cheaper.

However, the shortening of the popularity cycle and the reduction of costs are a chronic plundering. The social problems caused by "fast fashion" can not be ignored.

Even in rainy days, there is no shortage of shoppers in London's busiest Oxford street.

A young woman walked out of the Primark clothing store, known for its low price, carrying six or seven brown paper bags, filled with "spoils of war" spoils.

One of the overburdened paper bags was broken, and colorful clothes scattered across the floor.

Surprisingly, the woman was too lazy to pick up her clothes because she had been wet by the rain.

Yes, that's the portrayal of today's fashion.

Clothing is tilted to sales.

"Fast fashion" is going all the way to completely change people's consumption habits and retail business mode.

In Britain, people now have 4 times as many clothes as they did 30 years ago. Each person spends an average of 625 pounds a year on clothes, 28 kilograms of new clothes each year, and 1 million 720 thousand tons of fashion products every year.

It is worth noting that the same weight clothes are thrown into the trash cans each year, though they are far from old clothes.

In the "fast fashion" era, people's attention to clothes is far less than before. The focus of the fashion industry is also tilted from manufacturing to sales.

Because of this understanding, Philip Green, founder of Topshop, a British clothing chain, has achieved great commercial success and made the clothing chain business into the UK's "cheap fashion paradise".

The Topshop chain stores sell and design and tailor the fashion that is close to the international first-line brand at the price acceptable to ordinary people.

3 years after its establishment, Topshop sold more than 1 billion pounds in six months, while the entire British clothing market sold for 7 billion a year.

For those with limited income, Topshop shops across the street are a shortcut to fashion T.

For retailers eager for sales, Topshop's success model is worth flaunting.

Low price is only one of the reasons for Topshop's success.

Keeping pace with market trends and rapidly adjusting supply varieties is another main reason for Topshop to attract consumers. Fast fashion has become an industry standard.

"Quick response" is the key.

"Fast fashion" not only changed the retail business mode, but also changed the fashion industry's production, supply and marketing.

When the stores adjust the supply with the tide changing, the "quick response" becomes the key to winning the competition.

The clothing factory emphasizes not quantity but speed.

Every retailer is eager to get the fastest supply chain, and the production cycle is continuously compressed, which is shortened from several weeks to days or even hours.

While increasing production speed, the working hours of garment factories become more flexible.

Because fashion trends change so fast, retailers often do not place orders at the last minute.

Regardless of day and night, as long as the design team of the United Kingdom finalized the drawings, the buyers who contacted the suppliers would send a fax to the garment factories in the developing countries.

A few years ago, a single order from a large retailer usually agreed to produce 4 styles of clothing in 40 thousand weeks in 20 weeks.

Nowadays, it is difficult for garment processing factories to receive large orders such a long production cycle.

As the first fast reaction force in the fashion industry, Topshop successfully reduced the production cycle from 9 weeks to 6 weeks.

The record was quickly refreshed, and H&M, another clothing chain in the UK, could complete the whole process from design to merchandise shelves in only 3 weeks.

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Limited edition "tease" customers

While shortening the supply cycle, Zara, a clothing retailer in Spain, introduced the concept of "limited edition" to rewrite the "fast fashion" rules of the game.

On the basis of reducing production in the industry, Zara further desalinated the quantity requirements and replaced the rich variety selection.

The Zara design team designs 40 thousand costumes each year, 12 thousand of which are produced on the shelves and 5000 more than Topshop.

When the first Zara store opened in Regent Street, London, its marketing strategy was baffling.

Compared with stores such as Topshop, the price of Zara is not cheap, but it is within acceptable limits.

Hesitant consumers found that if they did not immediately buy the clothes they were looking for, they might return empty handed in second weeks.

This is the success of Zara, which results in the psychological hunger of consumers through the reduction of quantity, that is, the so-called "limited edition provocation".

This marketing strategy causes psychological panic among consumers and fears that they will hesitate to buy opportunities forever.

Even Green, who founded Topshop, praised Zara's strategy.

"Genius is the essence of fashion."

Many clothing brands including Esprit and Mongo quickly copied the success of Zara: the order to delivery time was shortened to the shortest, and the product category was no longer restricted to the four seasons, and the number of each style was greatly reduced.

For fashion retailers, holding inventories on hand is the most outdated performance.

For consumers, traditional factors such as material and brand are not important to measure clothing quality.

We are busy buying the latest and the most fashionable design, and are willing to try different designs for every dress season.

In the age of "fast fashion", if someone is still satisfied with the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, he is a "fashion dinosaur".

Practice the most popular "mixed dream"

Cheap clothing chains are not the only commercial beneficiaries of "fast fashion".

When cheap goods are rampant, high priced front-line fashion brands are opening up new markets and calling themselves "luxurious democratization".

Small profits and quick turnover are the way to success in "fast fashion".

In addition to the number of clothing brands that have been discounted for 30% to 50% a year, the UK has appeared to be the main chain store for cheap products.

Primark is the model. The price of the brand is 4 per garment.

Low prices encourage consumers to over buy, and ordinary people can change 4 clothes a day.

When consumers are delighted to cut down on clothing purchases, the mix and match wind is rising.

The so-called "mashup", that is, "the art of mixing luxury goods with cheap goods".

The most fashionable trend is that it is no harm to wear a luxury item, even if it is cheap.

Since then, cheap is no longer a taboo.

Luxury goods targeted at high-end markets all year round find the "new world" to explore the potential of middle-income consumers.

Since buying clothes has saved a lot of money, why not buy a luxury to reward yourself and practice the most fashionable "mixed dream"? The chief executive of the luxury group said it was "luxurious democratization" to make the luxury goods "within reach".

Squeezing cheap labor force

The low price strategy is the secret of retailers' "turning the stone into gold", but it is the low price that exposes the dark side of "fast fashion".

Supporting the fashionable appearance is the physical work that is full of sweat.

According to incomplete statistics, there are at least 40 million workers in the world engaged in garment processing, cutting and sewing textile raw materials into ready-made garments.

In addition, there are 30 million temporary workers working in family workshops for clothing embroidery, fringes or sewing ornaments. Most of these temporary workers are women.

The principle of "fast fashion" depends on the low price and fast speed, which challenges the limits of workers.

In developing countries, garment processing factories earn little profit from each order.

Every reduction in the retail price of clothing can affect the income of garment workers.

In Bangladesh, many workers are the only source of income for their families, but their daily income of 1 pounds is far from enough to maintain their family's expenses for the whole day.

Shortening the supply cycle aggravates the pressure of the garment processing plant.

Workers were told to work overtime before going off duty, and they could probably work for more than ten hours in order to rush orders.

The craftsmen craftsmen craftsmen craftsmen craftsmen and expensive luxuries are also unaccountable.

In the face of "luxurious democratization", luxury brands have been outsourced to developing countries such as Eastern Europe and Asia to reduce labor expenditure.

Even in developed countries, cheap labor is replacing traditional and expensive "studio" production methods.

In the Central Textile City of Prato, Italy, about 25 thousand garment workers from developing countries make luxury goods locally.

According to the Italy TV documentary "extravagant slave" exposure, the working environment of these workers is extremely bad, and the wage level is less than half of the legal minimum wage in Italy.

WWF will rank luxury brands from the perspective of social and environmental sustainability.

Many famous brand ratings are on the low side, French Louis Weedon company (LVMH) has been rated C, while the British Todd company (Tod) is F level.

Related links, when fashion becomes cheaper, consumers do not save money.

When fashion becomes so cheap, consumers should have saved a lot.

However, this is not necessarily the case.

If we look at the data from the data only, people's spending on buying clothes actually decreased in the "fast fashion" era.

In 2008, the average British consumer spent 21.6 pounds a week on clothes and shoes, which is equivalent to 4.6% of the weekly budget.

Benefiting from the cheap selling strategy of clothing stores, Britons now fill up 40% of the wardrobe with only 17% of the original charge.

But in fact, consumers spend less money, but it is not a waste of money to buy clothes that are not needed because they are on impulse.

At the time of 80%, people would actually wear only 20% of the clothes they bought.

Under the stimulation of low price promotion, more and more consumers in the UK have become addicted, buying at least 2 clothes a week.

The article therefore suggests that before impulsive shopping, it is best to lock the 20% clothes that you really need.

As a result, people will buy clothes from 104 to 21 pieces per year, saving money and protecting the environment.

"Fast fashion" craze for "quick and accurate"

"Fast fashion", which is characterized by "fast, ruthless and accurate", is rising rapidly, driving the global fashion trend.

The so-called "fast fashion" mainly includes three aspects, that is, the delivery time is fast, the price is fair and the fashion trend is closely followed.

"Fast" means fast fashion clothes always follow the trend of the season. The speed of new products to shops is fast. The frequency of display is two times a week.

"Ruthless" means that the competition between brands is fierce, and the speed of consumers can compete with the brand competition. It is common to do "moonlight clan" every month.

"Accuracy" means eye sight.

Designers can predict the trend in the near future and design all kinds of fashionable clothes in a short time. When consumers choose goods, they will buy them without hesitation.

Generally, "fast fashion" brand collects and designs fashion information through the latest international conference and other channels, and then produces and sells. The fastest time is 12 days, and the price is less than 1/10 of the international famous brand.

"Fast fashion" every garment production quantity is very small, so that not only reduces the display of single item, but also creates scarcity artificially, and drives the desire to buy.

At the same time, "fast fashion" produces 3 to 4 times the clothing styles of the general enterprises every year, and the products are replaced every week.

Although the speed of the expansion of "fast fashion" brands is alarming, the development of brands is also a crisis.

The first thing to sacrifice is the quality of products.

Poor material and rough workmanship are unavoidable embarrassments.

In addition, the design of plagiarism has become the biggest problem of "fast fashion".

Original design is not the selling point of "fast fashion". Therefore, copying other brands has become one of the "hidden rules" of "fast fashion" brand.

In Europe, Zara pays tens of millions of euros to top brands every year because most of their styles are copied.