Fast speed in fashion is a defining

Fast speed in fashion is a defining characteristic of today’s textile and clothing industry. It’s about fast in production – tracking sales with electronic tills and just-in-time manufacturing which has now made it possible to turn a sample or design sketch into a finished product in as little as 12 days; and fast in consumption – a recent report revealed that people are buying one third more garments than four years ago fuelled by the rise and rise of ‘value’ retailers and supermarkets like Primark and Matalan. Yet super cheap, ‘value’ or fast fashion garments are no quicker to make or consume than any other garment. The fibre takes the same amount of time to grow regardless of a product’s speed to market (in the case of cotton, around a year). Likewise the fibre takes the same amount of time to be spun, knitted or woven, cleaned, bleached, dyed, printed, cut and sewn; and the activity of going shopping and laundering the garment takes the same amount of time regardless of how speedily a design makes it from catwalk to high street retailer.