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 By Cady Lang April 12, 2024 1:47 PM EDT What's the true cost of fast fashion? —

Cady Lang, TIME, 12 Apr. 2024 The company may reflect broader patterns of exploitation in fast fashion. —

Callie Holtermann, New York Times, 9 Apr. 2024 The filmmakers shrewdly incorporate timely topics like fast fashion, food insecurity, toxic masculinity and privilege in a humorous, intelligent manner. —

Courtney Howard, Variety, 9 Apr. 2024 The Asia Future 30 companies focuses on public firms, but excitement is also brewing in the IPO market, with big names set to go public in 2024: fast fashion platform Shein, logistics network Cainiao, and EV scooter firm Ola Electric. —

Fang Ruan, Fortune Asia, 20 Mar. 2024 Shoppers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impact of fast fashion, prompting them to turn to brands that offer cleaner, more climate-friendly alternatives. —

Prarthana Prakash, Fortune Europe, 27 Mar. 2024 The climb of Kohl’s Plenty of ink has been spilled about the death of the department store, mainly thanks to the onset of fast fashion and online shopping. —

Francisco Velasquez, Quartz, 12 Mar. 2024 Katherine Geisel, 32, of Brooklyn, transitioned to a mostly vintage and secondhand wardrobe a few years ago, citing a pileup of fast fashion in her closet. —

Stephanie Cain, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2024 In retail, fast fashion giant Shein is set to go public this year. —

Bruce Gil, Quartz, 18 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fast fashion.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.