Definition
Fast fashion refers to patterns of intensified production and consumption of clothes, shoes, and fashion accessories, characterized by shorter fashion cycles, shorter use cycles, and lower prices. These patterns come at the expense of poor working conditions in the supply chain and environmental pollution upstream and downstream.
History
The fast fashion business model emerged in the late 20th century and was based on copying high fashion styles to produce similar garments at a price point affordable to the middle class. In its early days, it was praised for democratizing fashion and making beauty and style accessible to consumers beyond the wealthiest elites.
The model scaled in the 1990s, relocating production away from final consumer markets and allowing brands to drastically reduce prices by externalizing social and environmental costs of production (Niinimäki et al., 2020). To cut expenses, most fashion brands gave up ownership of their factories, as used to be the norm before the 1990s. Instead, they started working with independent suppliers through intermediaries based in the Global South, notably in China, and countries in South-East Asia. The lack of ownership and brands’ accountability, along with declined supply chain transparency lead to producers unprotected from macroeconomic shocks. The relocation of supply chains resulted in both distancing (separation of production and consumption decisions) and shading (obscuring production costs) (Princen, 1997).
While there is no reliable data for the global production volumes of fashion, they are estimated to have doubled between 2000 and 2020. Much of this growth can be attributed to fashion brands attempting to predict consumer demand. In the first two decades of the 21st century, fast fashion typically operated through 18-month cycles, in which brands pre-ordered garments based on trend predictions, far ahead of the actual sales. This practice routinely resulted in over-ordering, driving up the volumes of production – and resulting in unsold stock. It is estimated that roughly 20% of apparel produced today is never sold (EEA, 2024). A typical way to deal with unsold merchandise is incineration – a business practice that has recently been forbidden in France.
In response to the intensified supply, two major consumption trends emerged since the early 2000s. On the one hand, consumers started to buy more clothes – roughly doubling consumption volumes between 2000 and 2020. On the other hand, the use time of garments decreased by half over the same period. Rather than treating clothes as an investment, consumers became accustomed to lower prices and constant renewal of collections. As skills of repair and clothing maintenance decreased significantly around the same period, a new culture of disposable fashion emerged among, for instance, the young consumers of the early 21st century, the Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996).
With the rise of social media commerce, a new era of ultra-fast fashion has begun, disrupting the fast-fashion model and accelerating fashion consumption even further. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a new breed of ultra-fast fashion brands started selling exclusively online, cutting the costs of brick-and-mortar shops and infrastructure, investing heavily in e-commerce, and advertising through influencers on social media. With inexpensive garments ordered online and delivered by plane from (mostly) China, the “sketch-to-consumer” time has been reduced to as little as a few days.
Ultra-fast fashion brands created AI-enabled production in small batches to generate and satisfy micro-trends propagating on social media daily. This reduced the volumes of unsold stock; however, in line with Jevon’s paradox, it also resulted in a dramatic increase in the overall volumes produced (see Rebound Effects). Notably, Shein, a Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant, has been seen to release over 10,000 new styles and items on their app per day.
Different Perspectives
Plastification of fashion: One of the most important factors that allowed brands to reduce their material costs (and resulted in growing production volumes) is a switch from “natural” (cotton, linen, wool) to oil-based synthetic textiles. According to the organization Textile Exchange, the share of synthetic fibers in the total fiber mix increased from about 30% to over 60% since 1990 – with polyester alone representing 54% of all fibers produced today. The growth of the use of synthetic fibers in fashion drives up demand for oil and chemicals alike.
Moreover, synthetic fashion bought in the Global North generates vast volumes of textile waste in the Global South. Synthetic fibers do not biodegrade and currently, there are no recycling solutions available beyond a pilot phase. EU exports of post-consumer textiles have tripled since 2000. It is estimated that at least 25% of these material flows are textile waste, including non-biodegradable synthetic garments.
Changes in consumer practices and values: The culture of disposable fashion centers around the key premise of devaluation of fashion. Due to the externalization of the environmental and social costs of production, prices of clothing today are not representative of the true cost of production. Consumers buy more clothes than ever, while household expenditure on fashion dropped to a historical low of 4% in 2020. Consumption of fashion is also highly unequal, with the majority of its carbon footprint attributed to the wealthiest consumers in the Global North.
The quality of garments has universally dropped across the fashion industry, while consumers lost knowledge about materials, their properties, and maintenance practices. With free returns offered by retailers, consumers developed new practices such as (i) buying multiple sizes or styles, intending to return most of the ordered items, and/or (ii) buying to wear the clothes once, hiding the tag, and returning the garment later. Online returns today are estimated at 22–37% (EEA, 2024), which has major environmental implications as a large part of these material flows ends up destroyed (see Product Returns and Right of Withdrawal).
Social media’s double role: Following the rise of social media and ultra-fast fashion, consumer culture is undergoing another transformation akin to the accelerated patterns of consumption in the early 2000s. New social norms among Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) include not wearing a garment more than once on social media. The unprecedented popularity of “haul” videos (where influencers unpack purchases or gifts from ultra-fast fashion brands) led to most sales for fashion brands shifting to social media commerce. Social media influencers promote a culture of constant novelty, with no attention to the garments’ quality or origin.
However, consumption patterns also became fragmented, with a growing proportion of consumers seeking more responsible and sustainable fashion choices. The recent social media trend of “de-influencing”, which encourages consumers not to buy things they do not need on social media, is an example of a counterculture and a response to the “influencer fatigue” among social media users.
Applications
Fast fashion’s business model will continue to exploit people and nature until there are regulations in place (see The Role of Business). Considering the global nature of fashion’s value chains, an international agreement would be a necessary step forward to ensure synchronization among diverse stakeholders. It is important to develop not only efficiency measures to decrease the per unit carbon footprint of the system but, most importantly, sufficiency measures that would reduce demand for new fashion products and thus reduce the material throughput of the fashion system.
In terms of behavioral change, multiple avenues are available to consumers to move toward more sustainable and responsible practices when it comes to fashion: from repairing and using their own garments longer to swapping, renting, and buying second-hand, on to buying new products from local and responsible brands (Vladimirova et al., 2021; see also Repair, Circular Economy and Society). There is already a growing movement of sustainable fashion enthusiasts who advocate for buying less but better; however, this culture has yet to overtake the mainstream overconsumption patterns. Shifts toward more responsible consumption can be enabled through education and awareness raising (see Education for Sustainable Consumption); however, there is also a strong need to support and nurture existing alternatives to fast fashion locally.
Further Reading
Coscieme, L., Akenji, L., Latva-Hakuni, E., Vladimirova, K., Niinimäki, K., Nielsen, K., Henninger, C., Joyner-Martinez, C., Iran, S., & D’Itria, E. (2022). Unfit, unfair, unfashionable: Resizing fashion for a fair consumption space. Berlin: Hot or Cool Institute.
European Environment Agency. (2024). The destruction of returned and unsold textiles in Europe’s circular economy. Briefing. Available at: https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/the-destruction-of-returned-and (accessed: 8 January 2025).
Niinimäki, K., Peters, G., Dahlbo, H., Perry, P., Rissanen, T., & Gwilt, A. (2020). The environmental price of fast fashion. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 1(4), 189–200. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-0039-9.
Princen, T. (1997). The shading and distancing of commerce: When internalization is not enough. Ecological Economics, 20(3), 235–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(96)00085-7.
Vladimirova, K., Iran, S., Barber, J., Blazquez, M., Burcikova, M., Henninger, C.E., Johnson, E., Joyner Martinez, C., Laitala, K., Maldini, I., McNeil, L., Niinimaki, K., Onthank, K., Plonka, M., Sauerwein, M., & Wallaschkowski, S. (2021). Conceptual framework for sustainable fashion consumption within the circular fashion system. International Research Network on International Fashion Consumption, June, 2025. Available at: https://www.sustainablefashionconsumption.org/framework.