The concept of and business model for fast fashion isn't new.

It's been around in some shape since the mid-20th century.

When modern, read post-World War II, manufacturing methods, paired with an increasingly

interconnected and efficient global supply chain, which allowed cheap labor in one country

to use intellectual property from another and then sell to a third made quick response

manufacturing, which is a system for production that at times dramatically reduces internal

and external lead times for getting a product to market, both more effective and more attainable

for more companies across more industries. Different fashion retailers and designers have claimed to be the first true fast fashion outfits on the scene.

But in all cases, the business model in the fashion world that ultimately took hold

seems to have originated sometime in the mid-20th century,

as European clothing companies that were able to quickly replicate

Couture looks seen on European runways for mass market audiences in ready-to-wear off-the-rack form,

were brought over to the United States, which was a booming market for pretty much everything,

as spendy Americans riding a wave of wealth from the war

and cheap, widely available credit were busily scrounging any component of the good life and

high-end living they possibly could, including the veneer of style as seen and coveted in glossy

magazines from across the Atlantic.

Zara was one of the early innovators in this space, as was H&M, both of which were created by

European business people who struck it big once they expanded from the high streets of

European cities to the main streets of American cities.

More competitors followed in the 1980s and 90s as variables once

more conspired to create a relatively wealthy, spendy, upwardly mobile, and wanting to show it

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