The Zara Phenomenon hit Australian shores on April 21 this year causing quite a stir amongst fashion retailers (local and non-local), and representing the true epitome of fashion globalisation.
Is Zara a good thing for Australia? I am going to have to say, after much deliberation, that is isn't. It is one of the most frustrating labels in the world.
Zara do not advertise, their founder and CEO deem it unnecessary and a waste of time, yet, even in my lunch break (I work about 5 doors down from it), people are still lining up outside its doors and rummaging through its knitwear, basics and piles of crap like a boxing day sale frenzy.
Ok it is not all crap, just most of it. It's not only because Australia got gipped with its last year's winter left overs (trust me this is indeed the case, I was in Japan in January and half the stock from there that was on sale, was shipped, packaged and price jacked back up as 'new exciting pieces'), it's because it is cheap fabrics, badly made, badly cut and fashion trash.
The Zara claim to fame is that they can have a catwalk item in their stores within 2 weeks of it being seen. Big. Deal. As a fashion student I believe they slaughter good Australian brands that work hard to produce innovative, contraversial and quality items that make not only a great impact on our own economy, but provide Australia with a repuation worldwide of executing fashion-forward design.
Oh right, I just remembered that people these days are stingy, boring and sheep. Zara does nothing but add to this rising ability of chain stores to clone other designer's works, change a button, a dart, the colour and make it their own. As an aspiring designer myself, how am I to even attempt to create something original, interesting, unique when I will basically be fashionably raped by the like of Zara, ValleyGirl, H&M etc... who can afford to charge half the amount, produce it all in China, India, Malaysia and people will buy it!!
Design, of course is about adapting other peoples' works and working with certain trends, but nothing makes me happier than seeing a great adaptation of say a classic Dior shaped jacket and reworking it in a great fabric and adding fantastic detail. These are the key elements that make fashion fantastic. Yes it can be superficial, cyclical and boring, but it can also be exciting and more importantly, an avenue of self-expression.
Clothing makes us who we are, it allows us to indicate sometimes: music we may be interested in, colours we love, fabrics we adore and of course styles that flatter our differing body shapes. Zara's ability to make everyone looking like lemmings is just plain boring.
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