FACULTY OF BUSINESS SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF SUPPLY CHAIN, INSURANCE AND RISK SCIENCES

MODULE : LSC131

MODE OF ENTRY: CONVENTIONAL

LEVEL : 1.1

PROGRAM : LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

LECTURER : MR M.L MAHWINE

SUBMISSION : 15 SEPTEMBER 2022

QUESTION : Define fast fashion, describe characteristics and challenges.

Names and registration number

Madhlangove Nyashadzashe: R2212704H

Siyapeya Nancy : R226173A

Mapfumo Vheneka : R225410Q

Gideon Tanaka .E : R2210839X

Dambuza Rumbidzai : R2211415

Mazenge Pride : R2213036Y

Mukahiwa Kumbirai : R229659W

Sabvure Blessing : R2210886A

Zavare Edison J : R2212517C

Mutabheni Rutendo : R2212436Y

According to MacAurthur (2017), fast fashion is a used to describe clothing

designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to take advantage of
trends. Fast fashion describe the clothing industry of replicating recent catwalk
trends and high fashion designs , mass producing them at a low cost , and
bringing them to retail stores quickly while demand is at highest. It is like fast
food after a sugar rush it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, although it leads to
the creation of new clothes every week.
Fast fashion, is comprised of characteristic which include more flexible supply
chain which is quick response. A product can be shown on the runway and it
can be mimicked within a time period of twenty four hours ready for retail.
One can deduct a conclusion that fast fashion follows the latest trends clothes
that are just in time. Just-in-time refers to the stock being delivered as soon as
it is needed. This means there are no stock holding costs since there is no stock
rather it is transported when needed. (Cline 2008)

In addition, fast fashion is cheap and affordable it makes purchasing of clothes

on impulse more viable. This allows consumers to update their closets
regularly throughout the year keeping up with the ever changing trends
because inferior material which is used to make these replicas so as to make
them affordable. Cheap material is used in order to cut production costs
thereby increasing the rate of production and also the quantities of their
products. These cheap products are sold to us as some grand achievement of
globalisation. This can allow them to supply these knock off fake products at a
cheap price which would cause the products to flood the market as they do not
encounter high prices. Innovation in supply chain management amongst
retailers makes fast fashion possible. Zara and H&M are the two giants in the
fast fashion field. (Bick 2018)

Finally, fast fashion consists of stylish clothes this is mainly because of their
target reach. These clothes will be stylish and trendy focused on consumers
between the age of 18 and 24 the constant introduction of new products
encourages customers to come frequently, which means increased sales. The
retailer does not replenish its stock-instead, it replace items that sell out with
new items, allowing the democratization of stylish clothing which can be
summarised in five periods that is birth, introduction, early growth, growth and
maturity .The characteristic of the democratization of fashion include
individual autonomy accessibility that many people can access and enjoy.
(Allwood 2018)
However, according to Strauss (2007) it must be taken into account that fast
fashion has its own challenges. There is a sharp increase environmental
problems such as the increase in consumer energy as fast fashion has an
environmental problem which is the energy used during production processes
and transportation of materials as well as shipment of finished products to
stores. Material waste another environmental problem is the rise in demand
for new clothes and discarding old ones has made second hand shopping much
less common, which means fewer used clothing used clothing donations to
charities. As a result, people who cannot afford brand new items are forced to
buy low quality clothes from fast fashion retailers.

In addition, fast fashion has some negative impacts on developing countries.

Fast fashion impacts the lives of workers in developing countries negatively,
such as those in the textile are losing their jobs industry whereby instead of
the promotion of locally made brands they would export raw materials only in
turn to buy back them as clothes which have been replicated and costing more
than what they sold the raw materials for. It impacts the supply chain in the

Moreover, fast fashion retailers have been accused of using child labour as
they would be targeting to meet extremely unrealistic daily supply goals do not
follow laws and children as young as 12 years old are forced to work long hours
for extremely low wages and the manufacturers might practise poor
transportation methods. Workers also face the risk of severe factory accidents
for instance a Rana Plaza Factory, collapse in Bangladesh which killed 1134
garment industry workers and injured many more. Whereas there will be
unsafe working conditions which is another obvious problem with fast fashion
workplaces. For example, some clothing manufactures have had to close down
factories because of problems like fires or building safety hazards that are
caused by companies trying to save costs on production. (Kenton 2019)

Moreover, there is the use of synthetic fibres in fast fashion instead of natural
fibres. These practically can cause problems like soil and water contamination
as well as air pollution. The polyester textiles used releases microfiber plastic
into the water ways each time they are washed. Non-biodegradable
microplastics have entered the food chain and human water supplies, posing a
still unknown overall risk to human and species health. Clothes are disposed of
in a manner which is not suitable to the environment producing huge amounts
of waste. Every second garbage truck are filled or clothes are burnt or sent to a
land fill. (Strauss 2007)
REFERNCE LIST

Kenton, W. (2019, May 27). Fast Fashion. Investopedia. Retrieved

from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fast-fashion.asp.
Levi Strauss and Co. (2007). The Lifecycle of a Jean. Retrieved
from http://www.levistrauss.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Full-LCA-Results-Deck-
FINAL.pdf.

Allwood, E. (2018, July 25). It’s not just Burberry - burning clothes is fashion’s dirty open
secret. Dazed Digital. Retrieved
from https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/40778/1/burberry-brands-burning-clothes-
sustainability-fashion-revolution.
Bick, R., Halsey, E. and Ekenga, C. (2018). The global injustice of fast
fashion. Environmental Health: 17(92). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-018-0433-7.
Retrieved from https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-018-0433-7.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2017). A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future.
Retrieved from https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/A-
New-Textiles-Economy_Full-Report_Updated_1-12-17.pdf.