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

Ortega has worked to elevate Zara’s brand beyond fast fashion, through a series of creative collaborations and a stronger focus on design, helping the group distinguish itself from a growing wave of fast-fashion competitors. —Sam Birchall, Fortune, 8 June 2026

For decades, West Africa’s largest secondhand market had thrived on the global North’s castoffs, yet a growing deluge of fast fashion and its ultra-fast successors had turned Accra into the world’s clothing graveyard. —Jasmin Malik Chua, Footwear News, 8 June 2026

Written in 2019, the book also feels prescient about the fast fashion landscape that Riley’s film lampoons. —Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 2 June 2026

The Zara-Bad Bunny collaboration suggests that even the world's most successful fast fashion companies increasingly recognize the need to compete on meaning as well as merchandise. —Esade Business & Law School, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1975, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fast fashion

• compassion
• ashen
• passion
• ration
• internation