Fast Fashion Case Study

Title Living in a first world country has privileges that citizens around the world often considered luxuries. In the United States for example, citizens have well paying jobs that offer more than a comfortable living. According to cultural critic and advertising historian James B Twitchell, in the last fifty years Americans have doubled the amount of goods and services they consume. More astonishing is fact that the poorest fifty of society in America spends more than the poorest fifth did in the same fifty years. Twitchell also explains that as citizens, what makes Americans happy is the ability to purchase goods whenever they choose. This is why when the new trend of “Fast Fashion” was first introduced to American society; it was an instant

The clothing industry is now making 80 million new garments per year and in doing so it is heavily polluting the environment (Linnay 70). The fast fashion trend set by the clothing industry is having such an profound impact on the environment, that they are leaving the land uninhabitable for people and animals, and in order to keep this from becoming a bigger issue Americans have to slow down the means of production by using and disposing fabrics more wisely. The clothing industry is going to keep externalizing these environmental problems unless the consumers demand change, because corporations will always make decisions that revolve strictly around money and maximizing profits.
The clothing industry is like any other corporation in America, its one and only goal is to make as much money possible in

Fast fashion allows consumers to get the latest styles presented in catwalks at a very cheap price. According to Walter Loeb, a former senior retail analyst for Morgan Stanley and a current contributor to Forbes, explains that companies like Forever 21, H&M, and Zara have made a push to get the latest styles in fashion into these stores as soon as possible, before the clothing becomes last season’s style. It is something that works perfectly for retail stores, as Loeb explains, “Many new ideas from the fashion shows that just finished in New York, Paris and Milan will soon be on Zara’s racks.” This means that stores are always in a rush to get their garments sold, before they are out of style six months later. One of the best benefits for retailers is that, because of the high demand of the latest styles, clothing sells very quickly and once it sales out instead of replenishing, they will just replace the garments with new styles coming fresh off the run floor (Stanley). This strongly encourages consumers to buy a piece of clothing that they like when they see it, otherwise there is a good chance it will not be there when they return. It is a perpetuating cycle whit no end in sight. This trend encourages shoppers to be more impulsive than they otherwise would be if he or she knew that the piece of clothing that they really liked was going to