Guest editorial

Citation

Barnes, L. and Lea-Greenwood, G. (2006), "Guest editorial", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 10 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmm.2006.28410caa.001

Guest editorial

Fashion retailing is in a period of growing competitive pressure and it is the emergence of the fast fashion strategy that is regarded as one of the keys to success for fashion forward brands. Fast fashion is a business concept that cannot be ignored. The fast fashion concept has generated a Harvard Business School case study (D’Andrea and Arnold, 2002), accounts for 12 per cent of the UK apparel market (Bain & Company, cited in Birchall, 2005), is widely touted as one of the causes of the recent demise of M&S, and perhaps more importantly, is of considerable interest to numerous undergraduate international fashion marketing students here at MMU. A large majority of apparel retailers have followed the fast fashion concept in one form or another, including Top Shop, New Look and George at Asda who have branded an entire range “Fast Fashion”. Even M&S has succumbed and introduced a fast fashion element to their buying model by setting up a fabric pool in Turkey, and look at their latest set of (improved) results!

Despite this seemingly important and relevant subject, interestingly, the fast fashion concept has received little in the way of attention from academic research to date. There are clear links between the concept of fast fashion and more traditional academic theory on supply chain management (including just-in-time, quick response and such like), and of course in many cases it would be foolhardy to ignore some of these theoretical perspectives. However, the nature of fast fashion also has a significant impact on many other aspects of the business of apparel retailing, not least due to the immense pressure for speed placed on operational aspects of any retail organisation.

Given the flurry of media interest and the huge shift towards the fast fashion business model that the apparel industry has undergone over the last few years, it therefore felt timely (perhaps a little slow?) to present a special issue of the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management relating to fast fashion. Given the relative absence of academic literature on the subject, many of the papers in this special edition are, as might be expected, exploratory in nature. Indeed, our paper (Barnes and Lea-Greenwood) begins by examining the concept of fast fashion to improve understanding of the concept and also consider current literature on the subject within the context of supply chain management. This paper goes on to argue that fast fashion is more than a simple perspective of supply chain management or quick response, but it is in fact a much wider and more complex business model in its own right. Given its importance as a subject area, the paper presents some initial findings on the subject which help shape the research agenda. The central conclusion in setting the research agenda is that fast fashion appears to fall broadly into two areas, the first focused on considering the supply chain issues on which our paper tends towards, but the second area for research in fast fashion relates to its more general impact on the wider fashion industry, for example there are significant implications for retail operations.

The papers received for this special fast fashion edition of the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management are somewhat reflective of the research agenda suggested in the Barnes and Lea-Greenwood paper.

The papers by Doyle, Moore and Morgan, Sheridan, Moore and Nobbs and Bruce and Daly consider fast fashion and its impact on other operational aspects of the business, for example the pressure for speed to market has implications for supplier management (Doyle, Moore and Morgan), category management (Sheridan, Moore and Nobbs) and the buying process (Bruce and Daly). The paper by Tyler, Heeley and Bhamra links issues in supply chain management with the process of new product development in apparel. One of the oft asked questions by industry observers is whether fast fashion does in fact contribute to commercial success. The paper by Hayes and Jones addresses this by providing an analysis of financial indicators of key fashion retailers. Finally, Joergens and Pan take a different perspective on fast fashion by approaching it from a consideration of the ethics of sourcing in a fast climate (Joergans) and issues related to mass customisation (Pan).

Finally, we would like to thank the reviewers who responded so “fast”, turning papers around, the contributors themselves for their “fast” response in completing their amendments and to everyone else who helped.

LizBarnes and Gaynor Lea-GreenwoodGuest Editors