Rachel G.
Rachel works in the garment industry as a senior buyer, responsible for purchasing goods for use. She has extensive experience in the fast fashion industry, having worked in the space for over 10 years, first at Forever 21 and then throughout downtown Los Angeles. Throughout her professional experience, she has witnessed the rise and fall of numerous trends, as well as the shifting racial dynamics and growing environmental awareness within the industry.
*Due to her current position, she has decided to use a pseudonym and does not identify the names of some of her workplaces.
Inclusivity Is the Biggest Trend
Interview by Rebecca Louie
If you wouldn’t mind, could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your background in the fast fashion industry?
My name is Rachel and I’m a buyer. I’ve worked in the industry for a little over 10 years. I started at Forever 21, and I was there for about six years. Then I was at another place, and I’m at my current place now. So I have a lot of experience working in downtown L.A. in the jobber district. A lot of my vendor base has been consistent over the past 10 years, so I’m pretty familiar with a lot of the different vendors down there and how they work.
I know you can’t say a lot about where you currently work, but to whatever extent you are able, what jobs have you held in the past, and what have they entailed?
I started as an assistant buyer, and then I kind of worked my way up. My title now is Senior Buyer. I handle all of the tops right now, but I’ve handled different categories over the years. In terms of experiences working in fast fashion, it’s definitely chaotic. It’s really fast-paced. There are a lot of ups and downs because, with fast fashion, everything could change tomorrow. So if we’ve invested a lot in a certain trend and then all of a sudden it dies, there’s usually a really big rush to get out of that trend, which sometimes can cause some friction with vendors if they’ve already produced something and you’re trying to cancel it, extend it, or change the style.
I would say, above all, being flexible is the most important thing with my job, just because there’s so much change — it’s kind of like a roller coaster. Especially with COVID, we learned that even more when overnight, everybody’s business died, and then everybody’s businesses magically came back. It’s like a lot of what we call “chasing a lot of product” and trying to book as much as possible to make our sales plans. Of course, if sales plummet, we have to try to get out of all that inventory because we don’t want to be stuck with it.
In terms of specific experiences, we travel a lot and go to different trade shows. One of the biggest ones is Magic, which is in Las Vegas. Pretty much our entire vendor base goes to it as well. It’s just like thousands and thousands of booths of clothes, and we just walk through it for days and pull products, which end up being what our future collections are.
We also go to New York for Coterie, which has a little bit more high-end brands there because at my current company and Forever 21, we do both private-label and branded, so we’ll buy from brands such as Free People or more mainstream brands that other people know. The private labels are developed internally; we have a product development team and designers who create the product using their own sketches and fabrications.
I was wondering if we could backtrack a little bit to the cycle in the fast fashion industry. You mentioned that it’s very fast-paced and constantly changing. How quickly do designs come and go in your industry?
Bigger picture, like every six months, but then micro-trends come into play. We’re constantly scouring bloggers and influencers. Of course, the runway is also important, but nowadays, social media, influencers, and bloggers are just as important as the runway, especially with fast fashion, which targets a younger generation.
What would be an example of a micro-trend?
Right now, for example, there are a lot of two-piece tops. So maybe you’ve seen sets, like a tank with a matching cardigan or sweater sets — something like that is a trend. Now, it’s in knit tops. We’re seeing the shrug with a matching cami, and it’s moved into dresses too, so now it’s a three-piece. So it’s something that we’re selling all together as one piece, but people want to wear these matching sets.
It’s something that was strong this year, and I think everyone’s going to be on top of that trend next year, but I think it’s something that will also probably die quickly. It’s not something that has longevity. Then, of course, certain things with print — for example, tie-dye was really big the last few years, but then we found that recently it’s kind of died. However, certain prints or colors can become popular overnight and then fade away quickly.
Does the increased scale of production and the fast cycle of trends change the ways that people shop and how the industry looks?
Yeah, I think so. A lot of it is based on demographics, like age group. Obviously, Forever 21 and fast fashion are marketed toward a younger group of people who don’t have as much [money and resources] to invest in something that they’re going to keep longer. That being said, there’s such a big trend now, not only in fashion but everywhere, to use eco-friendly fabrications and just be more conscious of the environment and the impact on the world. So we’re seeing a lot of new fabrications made from recycled plastic bottles and similar materials, which are starting to become popular, especially with Gen Z. I think that’s going to be critical in the future. Not that we’ll see fast fashion die, but I think that there’s going to be more importance on being accountable for your footprint.
How is that impacting brands like Forever 21 and other ultra-fast fashion companies? Have they shifted their practices?
A lot of the vendors that we work with, because they’re so in tune with these trends that are happening, are already showing us fabrications because people are starting to ask for them. We’re asking for these kinds of fabrications, and other people are asking for them too. If you ask them, they’re going to start producing them. The more important it becomes for people, the more factories will focus on it, and the more our vendor base will focus on it. I think that makes it more competitive in the marketplace.
Right now, we’re seeing that the cost is really high on these kinds of things, so it’s hard for a company, especially one like Forever 21, to buy into those kinds of fabrications and designs and then keep their margin. In the future, we’ll probably see costs go down on those, and it’ll be something that’s just the norm, like everybody will use those fabrics, which are great because they’re made from recycled yarns.
Shifting gears from the global impacts of fast fashion and its changing landscape. Can you tell me about the internal workings of these different companies? What does it look like inside the companies’ design rooms? I’ve heard that there could be some secrecy around designs, so what does that look like on the inside?
There definitely is. At any retailer, outside people are [generally] not allowed inside. There’s a contract with vendors where they cannot share designs and developments that we’ve created with others. At my company, we call it exclusivity. So if we’re making something and they agree to it, then they’re not allowed to share it with anyone else. Forever 21 was — I can’t speak for it now — but it was incredibly private when I worked there. It was high security. Nothing was supposed to leave the company, and nothing was supposed to come into the company that wasn’t supposed to. It was definitely very controlled.
In fast fashion, it’s super competitive, so it’s like, who gets the trend first? She’s not going to want it from 10 different people; she's going to want it from the first person who shows it to her. I think it’s a matter of who can get it to the market first. Everybody copies everybody, and as soon as they see it, someone else is going to do it, so I think that’s why there’s so much secrecy in my industry.
In your last response, you said, “She’s not going to want it from 10 different people.” Fast fashion is predominantly marketed toward women, correct?
Yeah, I would say so, or that’s been the case in the past; at least in the worlds that I’ve worked in, that’s been the case. There’s a growing market for young men and everybody. At Forever 21 specifically, I never worked with men’s fashion, but I know that it is growing very quickly. Obviously, it’s not just women who shop. Men shop too, and they’re shopping online and going to stores, so it’s just as important at the end of the day. But in terms of mainstream fast fashion, I still feel like it primarily targets women as opposed to men.
Is this also represented inside the companies? Have you found that women in the fast fashion workforce are a larger population than men, or is it equal?
It’s interesting because, as a buyer and in design, I’ve primarily worked with women my whole life. But with our vendor base, I would say a lot of the brands and third-party vendors that we work with are male-run, male-owned, or have male employees. It’s probably 50/50 with our vendor base.
While we’re on the topic of the workforce inside the fast fashion industry, have you ever noticed any racial conflicts, especially between a hierarchy of races? In our program, we discussed that while certain ethnicities tend to be business owners, others might make up the workforce. What are your thoughts or observations on that?
In my experience, I’ve usually been the minority as a white person, like when I worked for Forever 21, which was Korean-owned. So it was like being immersed in that culture. It was interesting because I was the minority — they spoke Korean, and I don’t. I’d be in all of these different meetings and interactions with the owners and leadership, where I didn’t know anything that was going on but had to try and figure it out, which, on the reverse side, for a Korean immigrant in the United States, is something they’re probably used to. But I’m not, and I felt like it was really interesting. I loved being part of that company because of that.
We would always joke that I knew what people were saying even though I couldn’t understand them. I would answer sometimes just because of the context, and I was very close with my boss by the end of it. She was like a mentor to me. Yeah, they would always joke that I understood what they were saying. I learned many different Korean words and enjoyed that experience.
Was the workforce and manufacturing at Forever 21 also predominantly Korean?
It was primarily Korean. Throughout my time at [Forever 21], there was more diversity toward the end of it. For the most part, when I started working there, it was mostly a Korean workforce, with almost 100% Korean leadership.
How does that compare to other brands in the industry? Are they predominantly American-based, or are they predominantly Korean?
There’s a mix. In terms of most of the vendors they work with, almost all of them are Korean. I would say most of my vendor base is also Korean, and then I do work with brands that are white-owned. But in my experience, that’s kind of what I’m most familiar with.
This is shifting gears a little bit, but in terms of the shifting racial dynamic and the shifting environmental aspect, where is the industry headed?
It is definitely evolving in the right direction. In terms of things like race and gender, and when it comes to product sizing, inclusivity is the biggest trend that I’m seeing. We’re not making products for just one person; we’re making them for all sizes, races, and genders. I think that’s a huge factor and very important, as we’ve seen in the last year. It’s been important for my company and a lot of other companies to take a stance on that and make sure they’re taking the right steps.
In terms of environmental impacts, I think that one of the biggest trends in fashion right now is sustainability and transparency when it comes to the factories people are working with, their footprint on the environment, and how they are treating the workers in the factory, which is important to my company. In the future, I don’t think it’s going to be tolerated as much not to be accountable for that as a company because it’s really important to the younger generation. At the end of the day, that’s who our customer is.
Where do most of these companies manufacture? Is it in the United States or outside of the United States?
Almost everybody manufactures in China, but we do have domestic products. There are a lot of knitting factories and domestic factories right here in the U.S. That is primarily for knits, and Mexico also produces knits. If you want something more of a special construction, like a woven blazer or tailored pants, almost all of that is going to be produced in China. At the end of the day, it all comes down to cost because producing it here would be too expensive.
Why is it less expensive to produce in China?
The cost of labor in China is just less expensive, which I think isn’t just with fashion; it’s across the board. So there’s the cost of the workers in the factory, and then there’s the cost of sewing, cutting, and dyeing. There are all these different factors, and when you add them up, it’s just cheaper to produce in China, depending on the design.
Do you think that most manufacturing done overseas is done ethically, in general, in the fast fashion industry?
From my experience, just with us being really transparent, from what we know and the communication we have with our vendors and who they work with, it is done ethically. If we were to find out otherwise, we would definitely cut ties with that vendor; we would never work with a factory if, to our knowledge, something was not right with it.
If you’re speaking from a broader perspective, there’s obviously been lots of media and news around certain companies and factories not following the rules in how they’re treating employees. When you’re mass producing and having to be overseas, you don’t have full visibility into it, and there is a risk of that. I just hope that brands will continue to get the transparency they need to make sure that nothing bad is going on.
Do you think people tend to look the other way, or do you think that companies are pretty active and checking in on the manufacturing process, the factories, and the workers?
It probably depends on the company. Sadly, I don’t think every company does that, but more should. I personally wouldn’t want to work at a company at this stage in my career that wasn’t cognizant of issues like that.