There’s no single moment in fashion history when the industry shifted gears, but there is one brand most insiders point to as the starting line: Zara. The Spanish retailer that first set up shop in 1975 scaled globally between the ’90s and early 2000s and fundamentally restructured how the world came to understand fast fashion. “Zara is the godfather of all fast fashion,” Michael Prendergast, managing director at Alvarez & Marsal’s consumer and retail group, told Retail Brew. By refining the model of vertically integrated sourcing and rapid store replenishment, Zara brought designs to shelves within weeks and expanded collections to be year round. “They were the innovators of sending designers and merchandisers to Paris Fashion Week, taking pictures…going back to their hotel room, uploading it back to headquarters, and then headquarters being able to technically knock that product off within 30–60 days, and get it throughout their global network, onto the floors of their stores,” Prenedergast said. Kirthi Kalyanam, distinguished professor and executive director of the Retail Management Institute at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, agreed, adding that what really shook up the prevailing retail industry back then was the way Zara was able to own manufacturing—which was generally not considered a “good thing.” “Zara comes up with the exact opposite model and says, ‘We are going to own manufacturing and not only are we going to own manufacturing of garments, we have taken a whole factory that produces the threads that go into fabric,’” he said. Soon, other players like H&M came into the fold, scaling Zara’s operational playbook that prioritized in-house design, tight supplier ties, and rapid logistics. Primark became a staple throughout Europe by the late 2000s, while Forever 21 carved out its empire in the US (before filing for bankruptcy in 2019). Keep reading here.—JS | 
