Why does zara wear the same dress

I personally find that January-April are dead months in terms of clothes shopping, for reasons that are two parts post-Christmas bloat to three parts winter inertia. Now, a quick word about that Zara sack dress. It is high time that someone bravely stood up and put an end to this nonsense, and this brave truth-teller must be me. This emperor is not naked, but he is wearing something that makes him look like a walking bollard.

Take it from one who wore only sack dresses between the ages of 14 and they are not flattering, and I have the photos to prove it. Shapeless dresses only make you look shapeless, however big or small you are. On the contrary, a body-skimming as opposed to engulfing maxi dress is probably my favourite look, and you can find many on, for example, asos. These big, brightly lit stores seemed to pop up in malls overnight sometime in the late s, carrying everything from skinny jeans to work blouses to cocktail dresses, often for significantly less money than stores like Gap or Nordstrom.

Their speedy supply chains rely on outsourced and often underpaid labor from factory workers overseas. This raises some questions: How did fast fashion get so popular, and, as the industry is confronted with changes, what direction will it move in?

Zara, which has been credited as having the first successful fast fashion business model, has a design-to-retail style of about five weeks and introduces more than 20 different collections a year.

Furthermore, because of social media, the average person can now publicly document their life in outfits. The rise of influencer culture and marketing has opened up a niche for fast fashion brands, specifically online retailers, to flourish. These influencers, in turn, drive the fast fashion economy and affect how normal people think about their own clothing choices.

Wearing the same outfit twice then starts to seem taboo. According to a survey commissioned by the London sustainability firm Hubbub, 41 percent of to year-olds feel pressured to wear a different outfit every time they go out.

Fast fashion, then, appears to be the simple solution to appease our desire for novelty. Fast fashion has democratized luxury trends for everyday shoppers who now have the option to dress like their favorite influencers , but it comes at a cost not reflected in its price tag. In December, the New York Times published a report on Fashion Nova , the flashy online retailer of the Instagram age, revealing that factories that were making Fashion Nova garments were under investigation by the US Labor Department for underpaying workers and owing them millions in back wages.

That revelation is hardly surprising, given how the brand releases hundreds of styles a week at ridiculously low prices. Fashion Nova — and the collective fast fashion ecosystem — was condemned and criticized online , but the report seemed to create no significant shockwaves.

Most customers have a selective memory when it comes to buying from exploitative companies: Research has shown that most either forget or misremember products that are unethically made. People also tend to prioritize ease of purchase and price of an item over sustainability, according to a report that surveyed nearly shoppers ages 18 to Although she's hoping the trend to customise the dress won't take off quite as well as buying it in the first place, because the whole point was to make it unique again.

If they've already got the dress they might want to make sure they're able to wear it without seeing other people in it. Faye also thinks we're about to see a lot more of this dress with a variety of takes on it as we approach different seasons: "I really like darker ones, someone dyed theirs a dark grey the other day and there's been an olive-y green.

Listen to Newsbeat live at and weekdays - or listen back here. All Zara clothes to be sustainable by How to make clothes last and save the world. Neon: Just a trend? Should we stop washing our clothes? Asos shares slump as it warns on profits. Image source, ClothesMyBoyfriendHates. Image source, Zara. The dress even has its own Instagram account. It gives you that feeling of being completely comfortable in your own skin. Despite previously selling out, it is still available online in some sizes.

Zara will not say how many dresses have been sold. By now, I have heard so much about it that it feels like meeting an old friend. Slipping on the dress, I understand immediately what the fuss is about. It is more voluminous than I thought — and no one warned me how hard it is to do up the button at the back of the neck.

But it feels like wearing a nightie, which is to say wonderful. Out for dinner on Saturday night, I gorge myself on pillowy pide, hummus and kebab and experience the joy of my stomach expanding gently like a self-inflating airbed under a polka-dot canvas, invisible to anyone but me.

In a society that aggressively polices the female body, the dress feels forgiving. It will drape kindly over wobbly arms and can accommodate a large meal. Perhaps this is why an unlikely sisterhood has sprung up around the dress. Wearing the dress on the street is like being part of a secret coterie.

It is a brave — or foolhardy — woman who wears the Zara dress to a social occasion, given how likely it is that someone else will be wearing it. Either that, or she wants the thrill of walking into a room, knowing that the dress may also be there.