Retail giants like H&M and Forever 21 are best known for low prices and on trend designer inspired designs. While the masses seem to be obsessed with fast fashion retailers, some wonder if the fast fashion model is ruining the industry’s creativity. While we’ve seen high end designers meet these mass retailers have way by doing collaborations like the Balmain and Alexander Wang for H&M there have also been all all court wars over designer copyright infringement.
NY MAG just discussed this very topic in their recent article, “Fashion Is Moving Too Fast, and It’s Killing Creativity.” Designer, Raf Simmons discussed the fact that designers are often times designing 6 shows per year with little to no time to incubate and regenerate their creative juices.
“Complaints about the acceleration of the fashion industry tend to center on “fast fashion”: the need to have new pieces on the rails every week, which both contributes to and stems from the turbo-charged pace of trends. But that need for speed has bled over into every sector of the fashion industry, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Not only are designers missing the “incubation” time Simons refers to, but they have a shorter span in which to make their mark — a few seasons, at best. And if they don’t succeed, they’re out.”
What do you think? Has the consumers appetite for fashion increased far beyond designers creative ability just to keep up with how quickly mass retailers are able to turn around new styles? Are we all addicted to what’s new? At what point do we invest in our wardrobe piece by piece and savor each style moment?
Tell us what you think in the comments below…