It’s summer and you’re on vacation discovering a foreign country. On the other side of the planet the food is tastier, the markets are more colorful and the beaches are cleaner, yet, something bothers you all along. It’s like a little fly buzzing inside your head saying Bzzzzara… Bzzzzara…. You know what you have to do to make it stop; it’s only a matter of time until you break… How long you will resist before going into the local Zara store “to see if they have the same things here”, and eventually buy that dress you had your eye on back home?

There’s no doubt about it, our global village got just a little bit smaller ever since Zara took over it. With 1376 stores in 77 Countries, the Spanish retail has become the world’s wardrobe. We all benefit from the affordable easy-chic items, and then fight to ignore that girl who just passed-by wearing the same shirt.

But why do we accept being a part of the herd? Why do we trust our Spanish shepherd to lead us to the meadow of good taste? Actually, it’s not totally up to us.

In its 35 years of existence Zara had crashed all conventions and reinvented our fashion consumption habits. It had introduced “Fast fashion” – 27 collections per year instead of 2, and a 4-weeks-long fabrication process (from the drawing to the shelf) as opposed to 6-12 months elsewhere.

Zara also learned a lot from the business of luxury – It copies fashion houses designs and sells them for a fraction of the price. It adopted communication methods that were reserved to the crème de la crème (no advertising, no catalogue). Most of all, even though it’s a mass production label, each item is fabricated in a small quantity which gives you the impression you can either buy it now or regret it later. These are all ingredients in the recipe that ensures Zara’s success in China, Lebanon, Venezuela or Italy.

Over the years, Inditex group who owns Zara had grown to be a big family with the birth of six younger sisters: Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Oysho, Uterqüe, Stradivarius and Bershka. In the end of 2009 Inditex had 92,301 employees and an annual sells figure of 11 billion Dollars.

4 babies are born every second on earth. According to my calculations, during that same time 14 items are sold in Zara stores worldwide.

Illustration Gregory Rouillard

After banning any use or import of fur in clothing, the Israeli parliament is attacking another fashionable issue – Jerusalem will soon decide whether or not Photoshop is going outlaw. In the name of good health, this subject comes up every now and then in different countries (a similar proposition was rejected in France last year). Up until now, it was the 21 years old software that won the debate.

In an attempt to reduce anorexia, a new bill forbids the use of Photoshop to make models look skinnier. Also, if the law is accepted, model agencies could no longer work with any models, men or women, which are medically underweight (whose body mass index is under 18.5).

“Fashion industry and advertising had created a perverted image of the ideal feminine form, as many of the models featured in campaigns suffer from malnutrition”, as written in the bill,”This image is a roll-model for many young women who are trying to lose weight in an extreme manner”.

Those who oppose the proposition say that anorexia is not a new eating disorder. It was already diagnosed and treated 150 years ago, long before Photoshop conquered the world. Moreover, practically speaking, it’s almost impossible to draw a line separating image’s “touch-ups” from “body deformation”.

What do you think? Can this be the solution to expanding anorexia? Should fashion industry take responsibility over teens self esteem problems all over the world? Or is this only the easy way out of an educational issue?

Illustration: Gregory Rouillard

When H&M launched on 2004 an exclusive collection designed by Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s artistic director, the stores were out of stock within the hour. H&M then thought it discovered three crucial facts about us all : We want names, the price matters, quality is not realy a priority. Ever since then we saw 15 other collaborations between the sweedesh company and fashion designers like Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Jimmy Choo or Sonia Rykiel. Each time the public went nuts to get an item.

Now, with it’s limited edition ‘Karl Lagerfeld X Coca Cola Light’, the red giant went even further with it’s assumption: associating a household name with a product could create an instant trend, even if the product has nothing to do with fashion. Even if it’s a soft drink.

There’s no reasoning here, of course, we know that inside the bottle it’s the same diet coke, but it tastes so much cooler when the model in the ad wears Chanel.

A quick visit to Galleries Lafayette a couple of days ago made me believe Coca cola had placed its bet wisely. People were standing there in long lines to pay for their diet cokes, and I don’t think any of them were thirsty. Thirst had nothing to do with this purchase… What do you think they were actually buying ? A bottle of drink or the last piece made by their favorite designer?

Illustration: Gregory Rouillard

Fat. Generations of women have been fighting it in the name of beauty and fashion, particularly in the last two decades as models got skinnier with every collection. We were all convinced anorexia is here to stay, and then came Beth Ditto, Lara Stone and Tara Lynn to liberate us from our chocolate-less miserable lives.

Last January, V magazine published a special issue with several fashion spreads featuring full women. On March, a plus size model appeared on the cover of the french ELLE, and here we are, more and more surrounded by comforting curves. Some say this is the inevitable result of the trauma left in society by the financial crisis, like the Pin-Up and Marilyn Monroe after 2^nd World War. But could it last?

Could this new approach to curves be a profound change in our society’s mentality, or is fat just another passing trend, like the military look?

Lately, the lables had embraced bloggers into the first rows in their shows, but Fashion Week is still one of the most privet events there is. The bloggers are only the tip of the iceberg in a society addicted to style, yet unlike Elton John’s fans or Real Madrid’s supporters, even the biggest CHANEL’s  fans can’t just buy a ticket to the show to express their support from the balcony. And what’s the difference realy between a rock star’s concert and a designer’s fashion show ?

Would you like to see fashion shows getting more accessible to the public, or will that kill the dream and cheapen fashion itself ? Do snobbism and chic have to go hand in hand ?

Illustration: Gregory Rouillard