Every new combination of clothing, no matter whether traditional or alternative, is an effect of a thought, of a remake, sometimes in line with or sometimes in opposition to an existing regime. However, it is a winning game if it rides the age or anticipates and influences it. The globalization process has swept up fashion not only in a productive sense. It has constituted a factor of strong impact in the rollover of the meanings that dressing involves in terms of symbolic language. On one side, if the end of a certain ethnocentrism—as a result of the displacement of the textile industry and the outbreak of new poles of fashion in the south and in the east of the world—has involved deep contaminations in the stylistic guidelines, also and above all the daily apparel has been overwhelmed by the birth of the so-called “Fast Fashion,” that we can consider like a new, globalized fashion mood. A case study, pioneering in Fast Fashion’s world, is the Spanish group Inditex, with its main brand Zara. Inditex, today’s number one in the field of textile-apparel, in spite of the crisis, rides the wave of the success. The advantage of the Spanish brand is not only the relationship between quality and price, but also the successful realization of the so-called “Fast Fashion,” never so deeply achieved by other brands as Benetton. This method has two main features. The first is the conception of a very basic piece of clothing, accessible and stylish, which often is a less valued reproduction of models that recently had been paraded on the catwalk. The second characteristic of “fast fashion” is that from the conception to the arrival of the product in stores only two weeks are needed. Everything starts with small quantities and then, thanks to a systematic and everyday control, it is measured if the product is successful or not (in this case the production is stopped immediately). The fast fashion of Inditex and Zara seems to be suited to accommodate the new trends of globalized society, to grow in a mature if not saturated sector, with scarce tehnological content, and most importantly, without resorting to a shortcut, even if saturated, of the oversea relocation. The relationship between globalization and Fast Fashion flows through the “Inditex/Zara” case study. It gives a touchable expression of the impact of the “fast philosophy” in the fashion system and the concerned effects, as well as the role of the communication and the new global dynamics in the creation of a different kind of expression. Zara embodies the impact in the fashion system of this new reality and urges reflections on it in terms of sustainability, on the importance of the role of communication in the homogenization of the social expressions and on disruptive—and devastating—impact of new generations in search of identity that are so uniform as fast and accessible.
FAST FASHION: The Globalization of Dressing in Postmodernity and the Inditex (Zara) Case Study
LENZI F.R.
2017-01-01
Abstract
Every new combination of clothing, no matter whether traditional or alternative, is an effect of a thought, of a remake, sometimes in line with or sometimes in opposition to an existing regime. However, it is a winning game if it rides the age or anticipates and influences it. The globalization process has swept up fashion not only in a productive sense. It has constituted a factor of strong impact in the rollover of the meanings that dressing involves in terms of symbolic language. On one side, if the end of a certain ethnocentrism—as a result of the displacement of the textile industry and the outbreak of new poles of fashion in the south and in the east of the world—has involved deep contaminations in the stylistic guidelines, also and above all the daily apparel has been overwhelmed by the birth of the so-called “Fast Fashion,” that we can consider like a new, globalized fashion mood. A case study, pioneering in Fast Fashion’s world, is the Spanish group Inditex, with its main brand Zara. Inditex, today’s number one in the field of textile-apparel, in spite of the crisis, rides the wave of the success. The advantage of the Spanish brand is not only the relationship between quality and price, but also the successful realization of the so-called “Fast Fashion,” never so deeply achieved by other brands as Benetton. This method has two main features. The first is the conception of a very basic piece of clothing, accessible and stylish, which often is a less valued reproduction of models that recently had been paraded on the catwalk. The second characteristic of “fast fashion” is that from the conception to the arrival of the product in stores only two weeks are needed. Everything starts with small quantities and then, thanks to a systematic and everyday control, it is measured if the product is successful or not (in this case the production is stopped immediately). The fast fashion of Inditex and Zara seems to be suited to accommodate the new trends of globalized society, to grow in a mature if not saturated sector, with scarce tehnological content, and most importantly, without resorting to a shortcut, even if saturated, of the oversea relocation. The relationship between globalization and Fast Fashion flows through the “Inditex/Zara” case study. It gives a touchable expression of the impact of the “fast philosophy” in the fashion system and the concerned effects, as well as the role of the communication and the new global dynamics in the creation of a different kind of expression. Zara embodies the impact in the fashion system of this new reality and urges reflections on it in terms of sustainability, on the importance of the role of communication in the homogenization of the social expressions and on disruptive—and devastating—impact of new generations in search of identity that are so uniform as fast and accessible.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
