YesStyle is quite new to the fashion industry only making its debut in 2006.It is not the biggest company and not everyone has even heard of the niche brand. However, since 2006 it has grown at a steady pace.
The company began just before the fast fashion boom. Fast Fashion is a business model by which companies create low quality and cheap clothing which they then encourage people to buy by replicating catwalk and fashion trends.
As trends change these companies bring out new clothes which match the new trends and encourage people to dispose of last season’s clothes and buy these ones instead.
This type of business model is problematic for the environment as individuals only keep clothing for a short amount of time, this causing excess waste and growing amounts of production.
How to Tell if a Company is an Example of Fast Fashion
Trying to figure out a company’s business model can be difficult as you do not have access to all of the necessary resources.
However, luckily when it comes to fast fashion there are some signs that you can look out for, these can include (but are by no means limited to): constantly changing the items that they sell to keep up with trends, selling low quality items, using their social media channels to suggest new trends and whether or not they are constantly advertising new products.
Most clothing companies use some of these tactics in order to make sales regardless of the type of business model that they use but when it comes to fast fashion these usages will be more consistent and the business will appear to be being constantly updated.
YesStyle’s Social Media Presence
One of the best places to begin when trying to weigh up whether or not a company is based around a fast fashion business model is social media.
In terms of social media, YesStyle was founded at an interesting time as it was created and grew at the same time as many of today’s social media giants. YesStylehave a presence on a lot of different social media platforms, here we looked at each one individually:
- Facebook- On Facebook YesStyle has over 1.7 million followers. They post a couple of times a day with a mixture of memes, links to their websites and advertisements for some of their specific products. Unfortunately they do not receive much engagement as each post only gets a couple of shares and less than 50 likes on average. Their Facebook account suggests that they may be using a fast fashion business model as they make statements about fashion styles and seasons coming to an end and create a sense of urgency to buy certain products.
- Instagram- Interestingly, unlikely is usually the case, they have less Instagram followers than Facebook followers. On instagram YesStyle only have 1.4 million followers however they receive much more attention here with each post receiving thousands of likes. Interestingly, their posts here do not suggest a need to keep up with trends however they do still mention current popular culture such as films and tv programmes.
- TikTok- YesStyle only have just over 100 thousand followers on TikTok, however, some of their videos do get quite a lot of attention. They use these products to promote beauty products that they sell more than clothes however, when they do promote clothes here it is not done very favourably. In some of their videos they directly tell you how to dress like a celebrity which is exactly in line with the fundamentals of fast fashion.
- Twitter- YeStyle have just over 30 thousand followers on Twitter, this relatively low number could be because of the age of customers that the company is aimed at as younger generations seem to be turning their back on Twitter . They use Twitter to post very similarly to Facebook and do not give a great deal of insight into their business model here.
Overall, YesStyle’s social media presence is not a good sign and suggests that they could well be using a fast fashion business model.
This is indicated by the fact that they post about specific seasons ending and about how to look like certain celebrities, this encourages people to keep their wardrobe up to date and to replicate fashion trends.
Price
Price is one of the biggest factors to consider when trying to judge whether or not a company is based around fast fashion as in order to constantly keep up with new trends customers need to be able to buy cheap. YesStyle’s prices are relatively cheap thus once again suggesting a fast fashion business model is being used. For instance their tops start at just $3.50.
Item Quality
YesStyle actually receive pretty good reviews for their item quality however, they do not use the most expensive fibres or materials meaning that it can be cheaply manufactured and therefore the company can afford to manufacture in bulk allowing for fast fashion and constant new clothing ranges.
This also enables the company to sell the clothes at a cheaper price which is evident via their prices online.
Advertising
In all fairness, YesStyle’s website itself does not provide much evidence that they use a fast fashion business model as they do not talk much about certain styles or certain trends but rather they organise their clothes predominantly by clothing categories such as tops, bottoms, pyjamas and jackets and coats.
They also do not discuss models or use lots of images of them but rather they use pictures of the clothing itself. If we were to make a judgement on the business model used judging off their website alone we are not convinced that we would be labelling it as fast fashion.
Final Thoughts
Despite being a relatively new fashion brand YesStyle has successfully created its own identity and gained lots of followers along the way. Unfortunately they can be seen to use social media to tell these followers to stay up to date and to consistently buy new and trendy items.
After considering all of the facts it is fair to say that they are using a fast fashion business model.
