Zara Brand History and Analysis

The Zara clothing brand is probably known to all people who are looking for clothes in accordance with the price-quality ratio because the quality of Zara products is high and the price is affordable. The brand has more than 2,000 brand stores located on different continents. In a few years of prosperity and success, Zara has grown into a large-scale Inditex textile concern. It includes such well-known brands as Zara, Pull and Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, Uterqüe, and the footwear division of Tempe. Zara is one of the largest clothing retailers and can definitely be considered one of the casual fashion leaders.

History of Success

It was Zara that revolutionized the world of the fashion industry, introducing the concept of "instant fashion". It takes eight months on average to produce a clothing line in most textile companies. During this period, design development, search and dyeing of fabrics, tailoring of models, and delivery of the collection to stores. Zara is faster and more productive in this case; it manages to do all the work in just 2 weeks. Inditex designers create inexpensive clothes in a short time, based on the latest fashion trends. This allows customers to quickly update the range in stores quite often. It does not let people get bored and there is no need to put it on the shelf next season. That is, Zara always keeps its hand on the pulse of fashion (Badia 132-133). Zara’s high accessibility and rapid pace of production allows it to remain stable in the public sphere. While some clothing brands might develop more prominent collections in regard to aesthetics, Zara takes the market with its production logistics.

The day when the new Zara collection appears in stores is called "Day-Z". Then, even in a few hours, all the clothes are swept off the shelves. Many companies envy Zara attendance figures. For example, a store in central Spain assumes that the same person visits three times a year. But in Zara this figure is seventeen. Around 24% of Zara brand clothes are made in China, Morocco, Bangladesh, and Turkey, the remaining 76% are born in Spain and Portugal (Kala). Despite the majority of Zara’s collections and the company’s overall image as casual, customers appear to be extremely devoted to the brand. Even more so, Zara managed to make casual clothing one of the fashion trends particularly by being effective in their production processes.

Zara cares about its reputation and customers, so even clothes made in China are thoroughly tested in Spain before appearing on store shelves. In addition, Zara stores have not needed advertising, promotion, and PR for a long time. They spend the money saved on opening new outlets and developing projects of brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius, and Bershka. Zara does not save on shop windows, because this is the first thing the customer sees before taking the thing in hand. They can compete with luxury brands like Dior and Prada (Badia 173-176; 154). The brand diversity that the company offers on the market is, thus, another key factor in the company’s success. Such diversity allows Zara’s customers to create unique clothing combinations, which in turn allows Zara to remain trendy and highly profitable as a company.

The history of Zara started quite romantically with a simple, poor man having enough willpower and wanting to start his own business. Eventually, Zara’s founder Amancio Ortega broke out and created something new and explosive on the fashion market. That will live a long time. In 1975 in La Coruna, Spain. Then a local entrepreneur Amancio Ortega decided to recreate the models of famous designers, using more affordable materials. Yes, copies of things from the catwalk have appeared in the windows of the first Zara store - but at a much lower price. The company still adheres to this policy. As a result, the company has been repeatedly accused of plagiarism. Zara was unsuccessfully sued by the Christian Louboutin fashion house for the similarity of their pair of shoes with his branded shoes. Three years ago, the Inditex group was accused of plagiarism by more than forty illustrators. The company, however, defended its position by providing that it rather takes inspiration from various brands than it copies them (Puglise). The company’s devotion to fashion might make it go to great lengths to create diverse and accessible collection at a fast pace. However, casual fashion is by no means art, thus, essentially any accusation regarding the specifics of aesthetics can be neglected by the general public and media.

Conclusion

Spanish brand Zara produces men's, women's, and children's clothing, as well as shoes with accessories, lingerie, and perfumes. Zara is part of the Inditex Group, owned by one of Spain's richest men, tycoon Amancio Ortega. The same group includes brands such as Pull and Bear, Oysho, Stradivarius, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, and Uterqüe. This brand is extremely popular and does not need mass advertising. Ortega once noticed that instead of billboards, only the windows of the Zara brand store are enough. Zara is headquartered in northern Coruña, La Coruña, Spain. One of the distinguishing features of the brand is that most of the holding is still concentrated in Spain, rather than relocated to Asian countries.

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Works Cited

Badía, Enrique. Zara And Her Sisters. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Kala, Kalyani. "Fashion History - Zara". Medium, 2018, https://medium.com/@kalyanii8927/fashion-history-zara-19ac531d9ab1.

Puglise, Nicole. "Fashion Brand Zara Accused Of Copying LA Artist's Designs". The Guardian, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/jul/21/zara-accused-copying-artist-designs-fashion.