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Introduction
A fashion refers to a style (e.g. clothing, shoes, and handbags) that is widely accepted by a group of consumers at a given time. Acceptance of a style follows a life cycle comprising three stages: introduction, acceptance, and regression (Sproles, 1979; Kaiser, 1990). A style is accepted by a small number of consumers in the introduction stage and becomes popularly accepted by large numbers of the population in the acceptance stage. In the regression stage, it gradually disappears and becomes obsolete. The longevity of a fashion may range from a few weeks to decades; a style may stay long or quickly disappear from the market.
In recent years, the apparel industry has shortened the life cycle of a fashion by adopting a fast-fashion business strategy (Barnes and Lea-Greenwood, 2010; Cachon and Swinney, 2011). According to Doeringer and Crean (2006), a life cycle of fast-fashion is a month or less. Due to globalization and technology development, the apparel industry is able to use cheap resources such as materials and labour anywhere in the world. Further, it is able to reduce the time cycles from production to consumption. A goal of this business strategy is to get apparel into stores within the shortest time possible (Barnes and Lea-Greenwood, 2006). It allows consumers to take advantages of the newest styles available at the lowest prices.
Fast-fashion retailers (e.g. Zara, H&M, Topshop, etc.) produce inexpensive knockoffs of the most updated high-end fashion and deliver them to consumers every few weeks instead of every fashion season (Bhardwaj and Fairhurst, 2010; Bianchi and Birtwistle, 2010; Byun and Sternquist, 2011). Because of trendiness and cheap prices, consumers purchase fast-fashions impulsively and purchase more than ever before. According to Barnes and Lea-Greenwood (2010), today, because of easy availability of media and magazines covering fashion news, catwalk styles, and celebrity looks, consumers are increasingly interested in fashion and appearance, desire newness and variety, and shop frequently. Regardless of the economic downturn in recent years, fast-fashion retailing has grown significantly (Hansen, 2012). For example, in the last five years, Inditex (Zara), based in Spain, experienced 47 per cent sales growth and became the world's largest fashion retailer. The success of fast-fashions is evidenced by the fact that even US department stores (e.g. J C...