Store Wars - Fast Fashion - BBC DVD
£190.00
Recommended retail price: £195.00
Stock type: -
Stock reference: 54.106
£190.00
Recommended retail price: £195.00
Stock type: -
Stock reference: 54.106
There's a fashion revolution underway on the High Street. Britain's shoppers want to dress like their favourite celebrities, and retailers have had to smarten up their acts. High Street chains like Top Shop, Hennes and Zara are now locked in a battle to get key catwalk trends from the drawing board to the shelves faster than their competitors.
Louise Hitch works in one of Leeds' premiere restaurants. For her, image is everything. Louise shops every day, looking for the sort of styles and outfits that she's seen her favourite fashion icons wearing. It's really important to me to get the right look for each season,' she says, 'You have to look right for your customer and give them the right first impression.'
Julian Linley, deputy editor of Heat Magazine, is not surprised by Louise's shopping habits: 'We've become more obsessed with the way that celebrities dress because it's just become so much more accessible. Stores are much better at cottoning onto the things that celebrities wear and producing them very quickly'.
Back in the bad old days of winter and summer collections, it could take High Street retailers like Top Shop 18 months to get their clothes from drawing board to shop floor; but Swedish firm H&M changed all that. H&M appointed young designers to make fashion clothes as quickly and cheaply as possible. And, spotting the threat to its business, Top Shop fought back. Its masterstroke was to hire trendy designers like Hussein Chalayan.
Then the industry faced another threat: this time, it was former Amancioi Ortaega and his fast fashion chain Zara. 'We certainly knew Zara and were extremely impressed by them. When we heard they were coming to the UK we knew it would be a big challenge for us,' says Top Shop's brand director Jane Shepherdson.
The key to the Spanish company's success was a state-of-the-art headquarters with designers, factories and distribution centres all on site. While other retailers had moved production to the Far East to save money, Zara knew that it could make best selling clothes faster in Spain. Changing stock frequently means that customers come back to check out what's new, and that means added sales. The Zara shopper drops in 17 times a year, the High Street average is just four.
With retailers copying the latest designer styles and celebrities like Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham and Liz Hurley popping into Zara and Top Shop to pick up a bargain, the fast fashion wheel has come full circle. 'It's just got faster and faster?if you want to be in fashion, you've got to stay in the race,' says fashion journalist Hilary Alexander. But can this obsession with 'disposable fashion' last?
Money Programme
Duration 30 minutes.
Certificate UC
Released 2003
Contents - 1 x DVD
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