Near you is a polyester mullet skirt adorning a derriere. It is short at the front, long at the back and also known as Hi-Lo-Rock. Like the fads before, the red mullet skirt has a short lifespan, and although it may last for years, it is likely to go to the charity shop or landfill soon.
The red mullet skirt may not last as long as a few months as a fad, but the fast fashion trend has proven significantly more longevity. With Zara's Spanish brand shortening lead times to just 13 days and UK's Topshop launching 300 new models weekly, fashion trends are captured and sold faster than ever before.
Although Zara and Topshop arrived in Australia in 2011, many local retailers have been on an accelerated fashion cycle since the early 2000s. Valleygirl releases 65 new styles per week, Supre delivers daily, and the middle Witchery offers 400 new styles per month.
The fast fashion has allowed a democratic confrontation with the luxury of constant novelty, which was once only the realm of the rich. Now, high-fashion trends are instantly available online, and the physical garments are being sold at prices that have never been lower.
However, the price of the garment does not take into account the environmental and social costs of overconsumption.
In the UK, about 30 kilograms of textile products are deposited per person per year. What is not dumped is used for charity. In a single sorting center of the Smith Family in New South Wales, 10,000 tons of donated clothing are sorted annually. Much of this is delivered to developing countries, a trade that can disrupt the local textile industry.
The two most popular fibers for fashion clothing - cotton and polyester - each have a significant environmental impact on production. One quarter of the world's pesticide use is for conventional cotton, which is caused by poisoning and air and groundwater pollution. In addition, cotton requires 11,000 liters of water per kilogram on average worldwide for its production.
With a world population of seven billion people and probably nine billion by 2050, food security and water security are becoming ever more pressing political concerns. The volatility of cotton prices in 2010-11 may be a foretaste of cotton prices peaking in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.
Australian fast fashion retailers face additional short-term challenges.
In 2011, in-store retail in Australia was at its lowest level since 1962, and apparel in the fast-fashion market was reduced by up to 70%. Local labels are affected by rising fiber prices (not just cotton, but also cotton-grade polyesters) and rising Chinese manufacturing costs. The upcoming carbon price can also lead to an increase in freight and raw material costs. In addition, more and more consumers are buying clothes online at cheaper e-tailers overseas.
Australian designers and retailers can adapt to these challenges by examining the life cycle of garments to identify intervention points. For example, a more efficient use of resources would result in disposable fashion items such as the red mullet apron being collected for recycling at the end of life, with the polyester being the starting material for new textiles. (See Kate Fletcher and Matchilda Thams Lifetimes project or Patagonia's Common Threads program.)
Reforbes, in touch with tomorrow
Crucially, fast fashion is not just a quick material throughput of garments, but a sophisticated global image and information system that is weightless to some degree. Since fashion is not tangible, it is not necessarily tied to the purchase of new clothes. One example is The Uniform Project, in which blogger Sheena Matheiken wore the same dress for a year and was styled in 365 different ways. From this perspective, the role of a fast-fashion company can become a role of a service provider and not just a retailer. These services may include styling advice, changes, clothing libraries, or end-of-life garment pick-up.
In Australia, Supre and Sportsgirl have followed the lead of Topshop and American Apparel, offering a small selection of vintage clothing alongside their new stock.
It is not a contradiction to fast-fashion retailers selling second-hand clothes, as the speed of trends means styles are becoming so popular and out of style that some versions of the "vintage" style are becoming so popular always in fashion. In the context of fast fashion as a "post-brand" second-hand styles simply become an additional must-have for the mill, as consumers mix the product (of whatever origin) in their personal, restless search for novelty and individuality remix.
Fast-fashion principles are also driving the success of online marketplaces like eBay, where used clothing can be re-circulated and revalued by individual consumers. The Salvos charity stores in Australia and Oxfam in the UK also sell second-hand online fashion, grouped into fashion book lookbooks.
While the rococo surplus of a new garment per week may not be sustainable, another quick fashion may emerge - one based less on over-consumption of new garments than on the innovative reuse of existing materials.
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