Fast fashion brands boost demand in shirts

The concept of fast fashion may not work for formals but for casual and club wear shirt it can make a difference. With fast-changing tastes, the concept of fast fashion that moves quickly from international catwalks to shop shelves is catching on fast. Most leading apparel brands focus on quick manufacturing at affordable prices for their target consumers with their fast fashion clothing collections based on international and Indian catwalks in spring and autumn of every year. Many of the top global brands, introduce new collections almost every week or every month. Domestic manufacturers find it difficult to do so because of budget restraints and also because the average middleclass customer is happy with the end of season sales these days. The concept of fast fashion is difficult in formal wear although it does well in the casual and club wear segments, which depend on current trends impulsive buying.

Unique fast fashion cycles a game changer

But all is not hunky dory in this competitive segment of fast fashion as brands realize that Indian customers are both cost-conscious and less fashion conscious and prefer buying more during end-of-season sales and repeat it over the next couple of seasons. India has always been a difficult market for global brands because of its strict regulations, lack of premium retail space, plethora of domestic brands and consumers not ready to splurge on changing trends. “Fast fashion is difficult in formal wear but casual and clubwear ranges can work on this mode. Those players with faster turnaround from raw material to finished goods can really encash on this model. At the retail level, fast fashion work best with EBO’s and large format stores but not with the MBO’s,” explains Shitanshu Jhunjhunwalla, Director, Turtle. The challenges involved are: proper cash inflow, control over inventory and faster turnaround from raw material to finished goods Only when all these plus more factors are in line, then the concept of fast fashion is profitable he points out.

Most global big players have set out a huge budget for massive advertising and PR campaigns and take out new collections on a monthly or even weekly basis. Traditionally, there were only two seasons of Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter in the fashion calendar. But now, the fashion industry is churning out over 50 micro-seasons per year, with brands bringing out new trends every week and promoting them in such a way that the consumer feels out of trend after tires of wearing the same item a couple of times. The goal of fast fashion is for consumers to buy as many garments as possible as quickly as possible giving in to impulse buying.

In high-fashion circles in India today, the distinction between “in-season” trends and “upper-season” trends has blurred as consumers buy in January and July sales and usually wear those clothes over the next season or two as well. However, the young upwardly mobile customer although price conscious, will not settle for two season-old clothing at a discounted price or buy unbranded clothes, however, trendy. Sales by the bigger brands are usually profitable when the current season’s products are on offer but not the last season’s at the next season’s sale as most customers find them outdated and will not be caught dead wearing them.

“Fast fashion in India is about changes in designs every two months. That’s what’s happening right now. There is a huge unorganized market in India but that’s getting converted. The reason is that customer’s want brands and aspiration levels are growing so unorganised players have to get into the mainstream. And the rate at which this is happening is increasing every year,” opines Sandeep Jain, Director, Monte Carlo.

With lifestyle changes, changes in fashion trends is also getting quicker. But in a fluctuating economy, it has to have facilitators like low labour and manufacturing costs, low logistics but high productivity along with a large budget for promotional activities. Shorter lead times and more deliveries to target different customers with different needs is the need of the hour. Fast fashion may not focus designing as a creative process, but it is forcing leading brands to change the way it thinks and operates. It is not for everyone but the discerning few and those brands that have realized this are on fastrack in an unpredictable Indian economy.