Fast fashion

Fast fashion is a business model in textile manufacturing where companies quickly create and sell clothing and footwear at affordable prices by replicating the latest fashion trends and designs using cheap and fast mass production techniques. Fast fashion is defined by Merriam-Webster as "an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers."

Multinational retailers that employ the fast fashion strategy include Shein, H&M, Zara, C&A, Peacocks, Primark, ASOS, Edikted, Fashion Nova, Halara, Uniqlo, and Temu.

As of 2026, 36% of clothing purchases worldwide are of the fast fashion category. The total market size of fast fashion clothing sales is estimated at $178 billion in sales per year.

Fast fashion brands have faced legal and regulatory issues due to alleged exploitation of labour, use of dangerous goods in their products, greenwashing their environmental impacts, and violations of intellectual property laws.