Three Phenomena Of Fast Fashion Development

The color of most fast fashion brands is relatively calm. Although the styles are updated 2 times a week, the clothing in the spring and autumn season is dominated by black and white, while winter clothes are dominated by various grey and dark colors. At the same time, many fast fashion tries to take the "high cold" route and close to luxury goods. This is a glimpse of one or two from the expression of the model on the advertising brochures or the poker faces of some shop assistants.

If in 2006 or 2007, Zara In 2014, H&M opened the first store in Shanghai, marking the seventh year itch for fast fashion brands to enter the Chinese market. The so-called fast fashion refers to the rapid replacement of new products, new products updated two times a week clothing consumption, typical brands include Zara, H&M, UNIQLO and so on.

Fast fashion brand in 7 years, the speed of market expansion is amazing. Now, only Shanghai Nanjing West Road near Meilong town square, less than 800 meters within the collection of Zara, H&M, UNIQLO, GAP, Massimo Dutti and other brand shops nearly 10. Every day, the competition between fast fashion brands is quietly staged here. Style, material, display and service attitude are the runway of the industry race.

What consumers can't see is that more and more fast fashion is for faster, and products are converted to expensive aircraft transportation. In order to create brand image, the proportion of discount inventory is getting lower and lower. In order to "guide" consumption, the first line fast fashion brand launches 25 thousand new products all year round, and the average design time of each new dress is only 20 minutes.

The fast fashion industry is also facing changes. At the moment, it can create 15 billion yuan online shopping orders, and is now distributing the whole country and pushing the shops into the fast fashion of Tmall Taobao. Do not worry about becoming a "Taobao fitting room"? It is so big that it has its own "super logistics" system, which is small enough to change for Chinese customers. shop With the layout of light and the style of fitting mirror, the fashion behind the window is changing quietly.

In the first place, creativity fails to catch up with the trend of the market: plagiarism becomes a stubborn disease.

"Can you tell the difference between different brands?" a fashion designer said that the "plagiarism" between fast fashion and luxury brands and the imitation of fast fashion have become "normal" in the industry. "3 days and nights in December 2014, Vitoria's Secret became the most popular content in WeChat's circle of friends. Paris, Tokyo, Milan T new models, after two weeks will be able to find the same street in the global street, this is fast fashion.

Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, is perhaps the most relevant road to fashion. On the north side, luxury stores such as LV, Hermes, Prada, Chanel and so on are lined up, while the southern side is a fast fashion street led by Zara and H&M, while there are many shops with only one or two facades in the alleys along the street. After a little more careful examination, they can also find the sewing machines for sewing machines and replace the shops with trousers and trousers. The latest trend of the world and the most traditional dressing concept intersect here, or low key or high profile, or fast or slow...... This may be regarded as the ecological circle of clothing consumption.

The price orientation of 500 yuan to 2000 yuan makes most of the fast fashion brands fall into the "affordable fashion". The seemingly huge market has become crowded due to the influx of more than ten brands. As a result, many fast fashion designers have always been very vigilant about inspiration and creativity, and they haunt all kinds of fashion presentations.

After a new conference on luxury goods, about 2 weeks, new elements can be found in the new fashion window. For example, a luxury product in the autumn and winter has introduced a similar film negatives decorative painting, it was more than a fast fashion brand deformation, imitator is nothing more than to change the image of the fawn into a little bear, or the "film" to become a little bigger. Similarly, the metal shoe buckle on the shoe of a brand also appeared in the street shortly after the conference, but it was slightly distorted. The designer's inspiration is "transferred".

"Fast fashion is indeed a part of today's society. Fast fashion design should be original. Miuccia Prada once said, "there are many" bad replicas "at the moment. How to find new inspiration is the biggest worry of fast fashion. A brand has even developed a habit of extracting part of its profits to pay for plagiarism.

Is it not plagiarism to decorate their designs with other materials? Designers say that the huge market pressure makes fast fashion research and development always on the brink of collapse, and "borrowing" from the big design elements has become one of the "hidden rules" of fast fashion brands.

Although plagiarism can damage the brand image, few people are willing to change it. After all, the definition of fashion is hard to understand. The relationship between market and designer is similar to chicken and egg, who inspires the inspiration, and who triggers the desire of consumption. It is hard to find the answer in itself. France Christian Louboutn The brand is famous for its red shoes. After seeing Eve Szentgrolan selling red shoes, she used the "illegal competition" and "trademark infringement" to bring the other party to court. However, the court concluded that the "red sole" was unique, but it could not be regarded as an exclusive "trademark".

Media reports reported that the annual purchase of copyrights by fast fashion brands and the cost of "plagiarizing fines" amount to tens of millions of euros. A brand in the United States was prosecuted 50 times in 4 years. Some commentators say that when the judgment comes into effect, clothes have been sold out, and part of the profits can be used to pay for compensation after losing the lawsuit, which may become the habit of some people.

Phenomenon two settled in online shopping platform: popularity has the final say by consumption big data.

In 2014, Zara and C&A were launched on Tmall, GAP launched the online store into Jingdong, while UNIQLO official website first promoted the virtual fitting function. Previously, H&M and other brands or other shopping websites, or insist on the main official website shopping. Compared to the worry of the "fitting room" of e-commerce, fast fashion brands prefer to find a balance between online and offline profits.

China is the second largest e-commerce market in the world. In 2014, the total sales volume of Chinese e-commerce clothing is expected to reach US $100 billion, an increase of 40% over 2013, while clothing sales account for more than 20% of China's electricity supplier market. However, at the same time, the market share of physical stores is rapidly losing. Is fast fashion brand reluctant to cooperate with the electricity supplier?

In fact, having a certain brand advantage, fast fashion is not worried about physical store business. The reason why we are reluctant to cooperate with the e-commerce platform is that there are many counterfeiters on the electronic business platform. "Before, some consumers complained that they bought fake products online and asked us to negotiate with the electricity supplier. As a result, the electricity supplier needed us to pay the" fake fee "year by year. A fast fashion brand revealed that a few years ago, the online shopping environment was not ideal.

Unlike a domestic or several online shopping platforms that dominate online shopping, many fast fashion brands prefer to build their own online sales network in Europe, the United States or Japan. In 2014, there was not only a single brand and electricity supplier cooperation, but also an overseas fast fashion shopping platform Topshop, which officially entered the Chinese market by way of cooperation with monks. Although cooperation means part of the channel and its profits, it will be eaten by China's Internet e-commerce providers, but the development potential of the Chinese market will still let the fast fashion go without hesitation.

"Is there any difference between working with China's e-commerce providers and opening a store in shopping plaza?" a fast fashion executive asked rhetorical questions in the face of Chinese media. The excavation of consumption big data is becoming what most fast fashion wants to do in China at the moment. "A brand can produce 15 to 20 series a year, and all the clothes in the headquarters warehouse will not stay for more than 3 days. The basis for quick decision is correct market data."

In the face of high costs, fast fashion brands who enter the network need not bother to build physical stores to cover the Chinese market, especially the two or three line city market. They not only save the location of shops, but also have no need to worry about the quality of service. What is more attractive to fast fashion brands is the big data generated by the network platform, which will become a real and effective market reference. When the first tier city stores are no longer crowded, which two or three line cities will become the first choice for new stores, perhaps they will be drawn from the online store data. Insiders say that as one of the most important markets in fast fashion, China not only has a large number of consumers, but also more importantly, for international enterprises, the Chinese market is evolving into an experimental arena that can predict the best way to make profits online.

It is worth learning from the fast fashion data development capability. A fast fashion executive told reporters that all stores will have an early meeting every day, which will collect the quantitative data, that is, the sales analysis report of the previous day, and the intuitive feedback from the salesperson to the consumer, and report it to the headquarters. Once a product is finalized, the design drawings will be directly distributed to the manufacturer. In this way, we can ensure that we do not face too much inventory pressure, and we can get the most direct test from the market. {page_break}

Phenomenon three faster and faster update speed: quality is being squeezed by consumption.

The autumn trousers, which are disliked by "fashionable personages", seem to have turned salted fish in 2014, or even become popular. With the brand clothing represented by H&M, UNIQLO, Oysho, Zara and so on, at the technical level of "autumn clothes" and "autumn trousers", the "MeMore Cool" has finally been recognized by many young people. However, the updating of materials is far from vigorous. Fast fashion, by instilling "concepts" into consumers, is accelerating the speed of buyers updating clothes.

A passage about a fashion brand is very popular in the industry. Once the founder of a brand stopped at a traffic light intersection and saw a young man wearing a cowboy jacket full of metal sequins. Although many people felt that they were being dressed in such a way of rebellion, the big man felt very innovative. He immediately telephones his design director, saying that he wanted to have such sequins on his own brand clothes, so 2 weeks later, after the first draft was improved and the final molded jacket was placed on the shelf, it sold very well. Among consumers, there are both sports boy and white-collar elite who play street fashion. The popular elements in the street have entered the fashion circle through fast fashion design.

The inspiration for clothing can come from all the show grounds, or from the streets and lanes. According to media reports, Inditex, the parent company of Zara, has not only more than 300 designers, but also a team of dozens of people, looking for inspiration in New York's bars, Paris business district, and Spain's streets.

At the same time, the fast fashion market creates fresh feelings through various hints. A fast fashion sale says that consumers who enter the shop know that although they will always encounter new models, it is very likely that the clothes they tried on last week will be off shelves again. In this way, customers will tell themselves that if they see something they like, they must buy it at that time. Whether this fashion is an autumn trousers or a light down feather.

British Guardian column