Fast fashion is a term used to describe clothing collections which are based on the most recent fashion trends presented at Fashion Week in both the spring and the fall of every year. These trends are designed and manufactured quickly, and in an affordable way, to allow the mainstream consumer to take advantage of current clothing styles at a lower price. This philosophy of quick manufacturing at an affordable price is used in large retailers such as H&M, Forever 21, Zara, and Primark. Recently however, these retailers have been in pending lawsuits over violations of Intellectual Property rights.  The alleged violations are brought on as pieces of merchandise at the large retailers are considered to be knockoffs of designs from Diane von Furstenberg, Anna Sui and Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers line and many other well-known designers.

Fast Fashion and Category Management The primary objective of the fast fashion is to quickly produce a product in a cost efficient manner. This efficiency is achieved through the retailers understanding of the target market's wants, which is a high fashion looking garment at a price at the lower end of the clothing sector.[4] Primarily, the concept of category management has been used to align the retail buyer and the manufacturer in a more collaborative relationship. Category management is defined as "the strategic management of product groups through trade partnerships, which aims to maximize sales and profits by satisfying customer needs". This collaboration occurs as many companies resources are pooled to increase the market's total profit. The fast fashion market utilizes this by uniting with foreign manufacturers to keep prices at a minimum.

The Quick Response Method The concept of Quick Response (QR) is used to create new, fresh products while also drawing consumers back to the retail experience for consecutive visits.  Quick response also makes it possible for new technologies to increase production and efficiency. The Spanish mega chain Zara has become the global model for how to decrease the time between design and production. This production short cut enables Zara to manufacture over 30,000 units of product every year to nearly 20,000 stores in 58 countries.  New items are delivered twice a week to the stores, reducing the time between initial sale and replenishment. As a result, the shortened time period improves consumer's garment choices and product availability since, in Zara's case, a new mini-collection is released every two months.  New technologies are constantly being pioneered to accelerate quick response. Recently, the continuous inkjet printing process was introduced from the combined effort of Dutch printing company Osiris, and the French inkjet specialist Imaje.  The process uses image editing software to convert screen printing into continuous digital printing. The digital printing continuously recirculates the unused ink back into the system instead of the stop start method used by the traditional screen printing method. As a result, the recirculation results in a reduction of preparation time and a reduction in ink costs because of fewer waste products.

Element of Fast Fashion Marketing

Marketing is another key element in the production of fast fashion. Two approaches are currently being used by companies as market strategies; the difference is the amount of financial capital spent on advertisements. While some companies invest in advertising, fast fashion mega firm Primark operates with no advertising. Primark instead invests in store layout, shopfit and visual merchandising to create an instant hook.  The instant hook creates an enjoyable shopping experience, resulting in the continuous return of customers. Research shows that seventy five percent of consumer's decisions are made in front of the fixture within three seconds. The alternative spending of Primark also "allows the retailer to pass the benefits of a cost saving back to the consumer and maintain the company's price structure of producing garments at a lower cost".

Producing Fast Fashion

Design Lawsuits and Legislation

Forever 21 Faces Lawsuits

Fast fashion giant Forever 21 has had at least twenty lawsuits alleging Intellectual Property rights as of January 2006.  Intellectual Property (IP) is associated with many copyright laws. The permits to Intellectual Property are bought and sold as licensing, which in turn protect the owner, inventors, creators, and/ or designers.  Copyrights are enduring forms of Intellectual Property, and are the "economic rights to the creator" of the product.  Lawsuits have included conflicts with Diane von Furstenberg, Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers line, Anna Sui, Bebe and Anthropologie.  Forever 21 has not commented on the state of the litigation but initially said it was "taking steps to organize itself to prevent intellectual property violations".  Forever 21 does not employ its own fabric design team, instead the company purchases textiles from the designs of outside manufacturers. Consequently, the majority of the lawsuits files involve copyright infringement of fabric prints.

Learn about Fashion Copyrights.

H.R. 5055: Design Piracy Prohibition Act

H.R. 5055, or Design Piracy Prohibition Act, is a bill proposed to protect the copyright of fashion designers in the United States.  The bill was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on March 30, 2006. Under the bill designers would submit fashion sketches and/or photos to the U.S. Copyright Office within three months of the products "publication". This publication includes everything from magazine advertisements to the garment's first public runway appearances. The bill as a result, would protect the designs for three years after the initial publication. If infringement of copyright was to occur the infringer would be fined $250,000, or $5 per copy, whichever is a larger lump sum.  The bill was suspended after the House of Representatives session concluded in 2006, this resulted in H.R. 5055 being cleared from the agenda.

H.R. 2033

The Design Piracy Prohibition Act was reintroduced as H.R. 2033 during the first session of the 110th Congress on April 25, 2007.  It had goals similar to H.R. 5055, as the bill proposed to protect certain types of apparel design through copyright protection of fashion design. The bill would grant fashion designs a three-year term of protection, based on registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. The fines of copyright infringement would continue to by $250,000 total or $5 per copied merchandise.

The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fast_fashion  6/5/09 Modified by Apparel Search.

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