No. 7 (2026): The Languages of Fashion. Critical Reflections on Fashion Discourses
Fashion Mythologies

Layers of Speed: How Fast Fashion Rewrites Time, Memory and Matter

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  • J Carlos Garcia-Reyes,
  • Ester Gutierrez Mecias
J Carlos Garcia-Reyes
Universidad Complutense
Ester Gutierrez Mecias
Universitat de les Illes Balears
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-3919

Published 30-06-2026

Keywords

  • Fast fashion,
  • Performative art,
  • Circular Economy,
  • Clothing memory,
  • Socio-ecological crisis

How to Cite

Garcia-Reyes, J. C., & Gutierrez Mecias, E. (2026). Layers of Speed: How Fast Fashion Rewrites Time, Memory and Matter. Fashion Highlight, (7), 214–221. https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-3919

Copyright (c) 2026 J Carlos Garcia-Reyes, Ester Gutierrez Mecias

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This article examines the mythology of speed underpinning contemporary fast fashion through the performative artistic project Kapadocia, developed in dialogue with the artistic group multidisciplinary Kol·lect-if. Drawing on artistic practice as a methodological framework, it argues that fast fashion not only accelerates garment circulation but also transforms the temporal, symbolic, and affective conditions through which clothing acquires meaning. Through accumulations of used garments and hybrid textile bodies, Kapadocia exposes the hidden labour, environmental degradation, waste displacement, and culture of obsolescence embedded within global fashion systems. The study critically contrasts fast fashion with circular economy narratives, highlighting their conflicting temporal logics: acceleration versus duration, forgetting versus memory. By reactivating clothing as a material and emotional archive, the project proposes a counter-temporal perspective that challenges disposability and reimagines fashion through care, remembrance, and material responsibility.

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