Introduction to Fast Fashion
Fast Fashion refers to expedited production processes within the fashion industry which aim to get new trends to the market as quickly and cheaply as possible .
This movement gathered pace from the end of the 1990s when brands began to look for new ways to increase profits . High street brands were coming under increasing pressure from supermarket chains such as Sainsbury ’ s and Asda developing their own lines of low priced clothing . Most fashion labels produce two main collections a year , these are Spring / Summer and Autumn / Winter . However , high street brands needed to bring out more clothing within their stores mid-season to keep consumers interested , so the number of collections increased to drive sales . Consumers reacted positively to this trend which in turn resulted in the widespread speeding up of fashion .
The environment suffers harsh consequences in order for people to consume more clothing . The life cycles of garments being shipped and flown from the Far East to Europe are decreasing and there is more of these than ever before . " Statistics show that on average , UK consumers send 30kg of clothing and textiles per capita to landfill each year and that 1.2 million tons of clothing went to landfill in 2005 in the UK alone ." ( Harper , 2006 ) Retailers now need to respond quickly to changing fashion trends which now change in a matter of weeks . It used to take around six months for a product to get to the market , this has now been condensed down to three week cycles . But what does this mean for the high end high street sector ?
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