Consumers today treat lowest-priced garments as nearly disposable, and are discarding them after just seven or eight wears, according to a recent study. In fact, consumers now keep clothing items of every category only about half as long as they did 15 years ago, indicating that fast fashion has become the trend. This has led to huge rise in apparel sales. The clothing production has doubled from 2000 to 2014 and the number of garments purchased each year by the average consumer has increased by 60 per cent. The production of garments exceeded 100 billion for the first time in 2014—this means on an average, 14 clothing items per person on the earth, says the study carried out by McKinsey & Co. In five large developing countries—Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and Russia—apparel sales grew eight times faster than in Canada, Germany, the UK and the US since 2000, according to the McKinsey & Co website. There are numerous reasons for drastic increase in sale of clothing items in recent years. Industries are cutting costs and streamlined their supply chain to increase business. The outcome is that the price of clothing has fallen relatively to the price of consumer goods. The sales have increased overlooking the effect on environment while producing apparel. However, clothing companies have been unable to match their sales gains with commensurate improvement in environment. The study highlights that innovation in the way clothes are made has not kept pace with the acceleration of how they are designed and marketed. It has become difficult to match the increasing demand of the consumers for clothing items in all apparel categories. The productivity can be improved by focusing on resolving issues such as labour conditions, wages, effect on environment and safety measures among others.
