Pursuing fashion closely with affordable prices

by wgyuvs8a on 2012-02-22 08:06:03

Despite the short time since entering China, the development speed of "fast fashion" in the domestic market can be described as "rapid." Taking Jinan, a second-tier city not known for its fashion, as an example, the city welcomed its first world-class "fast fashion" brand, ZARA, only in November last year. By August 26 this year when the Hang Lung Plaza opened, the city would have two ZARAs and one UNIQLO. By September, Spain's ZARA, Japan's UNIQLO, Sweden's H&M, and Germany's C&A – the world's four most renowned fast fashion brands – will all be present in Jinan in less than a year.

Prime locations are occupied by "giant" stores. On August 24, two days before the Hang Lung Plaza opening, Mengmeng (a pseudonym) subconsciously glanced at the direction of Hang Lung Plaza while passing Quancheng Road: she actually wanted to confirm whether the mall would open on schedule. "To be honest, I can't wait anymore; I'm looking forward to a shopping spree once it opens!" Mengmeng said, her excitement evident.

ZARA, H&M, UNIQLO, C&A, GAP... Almost overnight, these world-renowned fast fashion brands rapidly expanded into first-, second-, and third-tier cities across the country. Take UNIQLO (headquartered in Japan) as an example: by the end of 2008, UNIQLO had only 13 stores on the mainland; by August 2011, the number of stores had reached 80. Furthermore, according to UNIQLO's headquarters plan, before 2020, the number of stores in China is expected to exceed 1,000. In Jinan, the speed of UNIQLO store openings is also astonishing: the first store opened on August 26 this year, and a month later, the second store will open.

Notably, these fast fashion brands not only debut in the most fashionable commercial landmarks of a city but also occupy the best locations and largest stores in the mall: ZARA's first store in Jinan is located on the first floor of the core area of Wanda Plaza, covering more than 1,500 square meters; while UNIQLO's two stores are located in Jinan's two most attractive shopping malls - Hang Lung Plaza and Harmony Plaza, with each store's operating area reaching about 2,000 square meters, making them "giants" among specialty stores.

"The reason merchants are enthusiastic about introducing fast fashion brands is actually very simple: 'post-80s' customers have become the absolute purchasing main force, and introducing these brands can boost mall popularity," admitted a responsible person from a mall in the provincial capital. It was also learned that as the "fast fashion" matures in the domestic market, the "large store strategy" has become their future store-opening direction, and areas of several hundred square meters are hard to meet their appetite.

Keeping up with fashion trends and offering affordable prices, UNIQLO, H&M, C&A, and ZARA, which was the first to land in Jinan Wanda Plaza, are considered by Mengmeng as important symbols of whether a city is fashionable or not. More importantly, compared to those "only lookable but unwearable" luxury brands, these "fast fashions" offer reasonable prices: a UNIQLO T-shirt can be bought for dozens of yuan, and although a ZARA coat usually costs three to five hundred yuan, for people like Mengmeng with a monthly income of three to four thousand yuan, "it is still affordable."

First-class design, second-class production, third-class price - so-called "fast fashion" mainly characterized by "quick, ruthless, accurate" includes three aspects: fast replenishment time, affordable price, and keeping up with fashion trends. Among these, "quick" is an important factor attracting people like Mengmeng: styles seen in fashion magazines just a few days ago often appear in ZARA within two weeks, though at much lower prices.

"ZARA designers travel between Milan, Tokyo, New York, Paris, and other fashion hubs, drawing on design concepts and trends to launch highly fashionable items, and do so extremely quickly: they aim to design 40,000 styles per year, of which 12,000 go into production," said Vivian, who works for a fashion magazine in the provincial capital. It was learned that the process from design to finished clothing takes Chinese apparel companies 6-9 months, and international brands generally require 120 days, whereas as the "pioneer" of fast fashion, ZARA aims to complete product design, procurement, production, and global boutique sales within 15 days.

"Why not spend one-tenth of the money to buy the latest fashion?" Mengmeng frankly stated that for people like her who pursue style, the appeal of ZARA and H&M far exceeds that of ONLY and VERO MODA.

However, alongside the astonishing speed of new arrivals, quality issues of "fast fashion" have been frequently exposed.

In April this year, the Beijing Consumers Association's test report showed that the fiber content label of a dark casual pant from SARA Commercial (Beijing) Co., Ltd., model number 5627/594/700, made in Morocco, did not match the actual measurement, and it also failed the acid sweat resistance, alkali sweat resistance, and wet friction tests. This was reportedly the seventh time ZARA had been embroiled in a "quality scandal" in China since August 2009.

H&M, another of the world's top four fast fashion brands, has also repeatedly appeared on the "quality blacklist." At the end of April, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced that the hem fiber composition and content of H&M infant jackets were不合格; and in June last year, the Shanghai Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau also issued an announcement stating that the pH value of an H&M knitted casual shirt was不合格. The pH value of this H&M knitted T-shirt was 8.5, while according to the GB18401-2003 standard, textile products should have a pH value between 4.0 and 7.5, clearly exceeding the limit.

"Sometimes the quality is indeed barely satisfactory, and can only be worn for a season," Mengmeng admitted that some clothes from ZARA and H&M might look great from afar but feel poor in terms of fabric texture, sometimes even with uncut threads.

Why does "fast fashion" frequently fall into quality scandals? The industry generally believes that the main reason should be related to the rapid expansion of "fast fashion." First, the shortening of the production cycle itself is a challenge to ensuring product quality. Moreover, many "fast fashion" brands do not have their own factories and rely entirely on contract manufacturing. Once the demand for products increases sharply and raw material and labor costs rise significantly, the quality of contract manufacturers becomes even harder to ensure.

Copying, low quality, poor service... As fast fashion aggressively expands domestically, the frequent exposure of negative news makes the term "fast fashion" somewhat awkward. On the 24th, Huang Yelin, the head of the marketing department of Fast Retailing (China) Co., Ltd., the owner of the UNIQLO brand, tactfully stated in a telephone interview with the reporter: "Strictly speaking, UNIQLO is not a so-called 'fast fashion' brand," "UNIQLO itself has very strict full-suite quality management standards, and such quality issues will absolutely not occur."

Fast fashion ≠ inferior goods, quick work should also produce fine details, which is the long-term survival path of a brand.