Fast Fashion: How Do Companies Like Fashion Nova Replicate Designs So Fast?

The Back Story…

Kim Kardashian-West was recently involved in a huge controversy regarding two popular fast fashion companies, Fashion Nova and Misguided. Mrs. West is getting absolutely fed up with the fashion copycats of the world using her image to sell their knockoffs of her luxury items to the masses. Not only has she slammed the various fast fashion brands multiple times on her social media platforms, but now she is taking her fight to the courts after filing a whopping 10 million-dollar lawsuit against fast fashion company Misguided!

So what exactly is fast fashion?

Fast fashion is when a company focuses on bringing trends as quickly and inexpensively as possible to consumers that do not want to pay high-end prices for designer looks.

So, how are fast fashion brands able to replicate designs so quickly?

As you may know Fashion Nova is not only one of THE largest fast fashion companies in existence right now but it is also one of the most popular, most likely due to the result of their HEAVY advertisement on social media.

First of all, on the designer side, it may take days, weeks, hours and tons of inspiration to come up with an original design which can involve but is not limited to picking the color of the fabric, kind of fabric and model. Long story short, it takes a tremendous amount of time.

However, what fast fashion companies are able to do and because the laws are not strict about fashion dupes (cuts and styles of clothing) they are able to duplicate the designers clothing really quickly. Fast fashion companies have a large list of points-of-contact (sample makers, pattern makers, fabric companies and etc.) and are located in the heart of the fashion district. So when Mrs. West posted her outfit, Fashion Nova was able to contact one of their sample makers to make the garment (using a similar fabric and color), photograph it and post it on their website. I mean what do you expect from a company that has access to EVERYTHING ranging from models on staff to fabric and sees a potential trend posted from one of the largest fashion influencers out right now.

But, here is the catch…

What Fashion Nova and no other company is able to do, is make any item in the hundreds of thousands in just 3 hours. It just does not work that way! Hence why the dress dupe that Kim wore was only available on their website for pre-order and if you were interested in ordering the outfit you had to enter your email so that you can be notified when it is actually available for purchase. They do this as a way to collect emails for email campaigns/marketing (sales and/or new products) but also as a way to gauge how many garments they should make.

In summary, Fashion Nova is definitely NOT the only company that has this capability, other fast-fashion companies like Misguided, Pretty Little Thing and Hot Miami Styles are able to do this as well not only because they have the clientele but also because they have the money to front to make these style dupes of designer outfits that huge fashion influencers like Kim Kardarshian wear.