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

The allure of fast fashion makes sense in times of economic hardship. People still want to dress up, feel good and express their creativity.

—Shama Nasinde

—usually hyphenated when used before another noun

fast-fashion chains/retailers

Examples of fast fashion in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For example, a Tex organic cotton t-shirt scores 510 impact points (per 100g), while a fast fashion brand t-shirt sold at a similar price (non-organic) scores over 1,000 points (per 100g). —Jennifer Bringle, Sourcing Journal, 23 Jan. 2026

In 2020, the fast fashion giant Shein removed a $2.50 swastika necklace from its site after the listing sparked backlash online. —Angela Yang, NBC news, 25 Dec. 2025

Cheap Materials Just like there’s fast fashion that secondhand shoppers avoid because of its plastic buttons and uneven hemlines, there’s also fast furniture. —Quincy Bulin, Southern Living, 23 Dec. 2025

Pickle’s co-founders, Julia O’Mara and Brian McMahon, told CNN that circulating clothes among users has fed into a trend of avoiding overconsumption or turning to fast fashion. —Auzinea Bacon, CNN Money, 21 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1975, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fast fashion

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