fast fashion

noun

: an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers

For many shoppers, Primark has an irresistible offer: trendy clothes at astonishingly low prices. The result is a new and even faster kind of fast fashion, which encourages consumers to buy heaps of items, discard them after a few wears and then come back for another batch of new outfits.

—The Economist

Competition is fierce at every end of the fashion spectrum from luxury to fast fashion.

—Nedra Rhone

In 1985, we bought roughly 31 clothing items per year; now [in 2012] we snap up twice that many thanks to "fast fashion."

—Azeen Ghorayshi

—usually hyphenated when used before another noun

fast-fashion chains/retailers

Examples of fast fashion in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Reselling fast fashion equally contributes to that breakdown, too. —Alexandra Harrell, Sourcing Journal, 2 Sep. 2025

In the age of fast fashion and micro trends, the pressure to be original — especially on Halloween — has never been more intense. —Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today, 2 Sep. 2025

Challenges have included the rise of online fast fashion sites Shein and Temu, which cut into the jewelry store chain's sales, rising interest rates, inflation and tariffs on goods from China. —Mike Snider, Freep.com, 29 Aug. 2025

While fast fashion companies such as Shein and Temu have been shoring up their US warehouses, more niche products that ship directly from their countries of origin are more vulnerable to tariffs. —Ramishah Maruf, CNN Money, 29 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1975, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fast fashion

• compassion
• ashen
• passion
• ration
• aurignacian
• internation