Fast fashion and see-now-buy-now: Strategies to accelerate capital turnover and stimulate fashion consumption

In this article, we reflect on fast fashion and see-now-buy-now. The first has its origin in mass fashion and proposes the acceleration of the speed of collection launches. The second emerged in the luxury market and consists of selling products during or right after the collection shows. Starting from these strategies, we present a theoretical reflection on the imperative of self-expansion and expanded reproduction of capital. The aim of this work is to show that it is this necessity, and not the consumers’ desires, that motivates the increase in the speed of production and commercialization of goods – and why business models like fast fashion and see-now-buy-now emerge. We develop our argument based on the concepts elaborated by Karl Marx, as we consider historical materialism gives us grounds to understand the stimulus of accelerated fashion consumption as a consequence of demands from the sphere of production. Thus, we demonstrate how fast fashion works to increase capital turnover. Next, we reflect on aesthetic innovation and ‘lifestyles’ as tools for accelerating consumption. We address the influences of this dynamic on the luxury market, on the emergence of see-now-buy-now and on inventories formation. Finally, we provide an overview of fashion consumption in Brazil.