Fast fashion retailers, such as Zara, H&M, Topshop, and Urban Outfitters, compete by getting new designs to the marketplace as quickly as possible. For example, Zara develops around 20,000 designs per year.
Such speed occasionally leads to fast fashion faux pas.
Some of the most notable include:
- Zara’s miniskirt with a character resembling Pepe the Frog, a symbol used by white supremacists
- H&M ran an ad of a black child wearing a sweatshirt that said “Coolest monkey in the jungle”
- Urban Outfitter’s sold a red-stained Kent State Sweatshirt as part of its vintage collection
And while not the fault of the designer, sometimes these companies end up in the news because of the circumstances in which their clothing is displayed. Recently, Melania Trump wore a Zara jacket with the words “I really don’t care, do u?” as she traveled to visit immigrant children who had been separated from their parents.
This post is based on the Washington Post article, Fast Fashion, Furious Controversy: Why Retailers Like Zara and H&M Keep Making Headlines for Offensive Clothing, by Abha Bhattarai, June 29, 2018. Image source: © Floresco Productions / age fotostock.
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1. Why is fast design important?
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