Sustaining the Retail Pilgrimage: Fast Fashion, Authenticity, and the Democratization of Style

• In Event: 383 - Section on Consumers and Consumption Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. High Culture and Inequality

Abstract

This article analyses the interaction between production and consumption in the apparel industry, focusing on changes that have occurred in the past decade. Specifically, we examine connections between supply and demand for products in a market noted for its volatility and product lifecycles that can be measured in weeks. Many studies have examined how supply chain rationalization has imposed greater demands upon manufacturers to meet cost, quality and delivery mandates. However, fewer studies examine how changing consumer demand both affects and is affected by the resulting retail revolution of Fast Fashion—a new breed of retailers who stock new items more frequently, selling inexpensive ‘fashion forward’ items to more style conscious consumers. We argue that retailers have realized that enhanced designs provide transient consumer value and a more effective matching of supply and demand. Consumers, meanwhile, behave strategically by visiting stores more often and increasing the frequency of their purchases, which can correspond with increasingly fluid and contextualized construction of authentic identities.

Authors

• Amanda Koontz Anthony, University of Central Florida

• Ian M. Taplin, Wake Forest University