Journal of Economic Geography 8 (2008) pp. 21–38 doi:10.1093/jeg/lbm035 Advance Access Published on 23 October 2007 Global sourcing: insights from the global clothing industry—the case of Zara, a fast fashion retailer Nebahat Tokatli* Abstract Until recently, Zara, a major international clothing retailer and pioneer of ‘fast fashion’ principles, kept almost half of its production in Spain and Portugal, earning the reputation of being one of the exceptions to globalization. Since the 1980s, the existence of such exceptions has been fueling an expectation that the production of high-quality fashion garments and tailored suits would remain in the industrialized core. Here I revisit this expectation in the light of the current seminal change in the culture of fashion from ready-to-wear to fast fashion, and report that the increased variety and fashionability associated with fast fashion, represented by Zara, have tilted the balance of competitive advantage towards, rather than away from, firms in partially industrialized countries. As a number of supplier firms in countries such as Morocco, India and Turkey have gained the competence to manufacture intricately worked high- quality garments with the required flexibility and speed, Zara has turned to sourcing from these countries. It appears that instead of Zara changing the geography of jobs, the geography of competencies and jobs has changed Zara. Keywords: clothing retailers, supply chains, global sourcing, fast fashion, Zara JEL classifications: F23, D21, L14, L25, L67 Date submitted: 22 November 2006 Date accepted: 17 September 2007 1. Introduction International retailers of clothing are believed to be the key drivers of the globalization of the clothing industry (Gereffi, 2005a). They fuel globalization via global sourcing, thereby contributing to the flight of manufacturing jobs from the West. However, in the literature, the variety of ways in which retailers are becoming involved in global sourcing has not yet been thoroughly explored. Berger (2005) observes a real diversity among the companies trying to survive and prosper in different industries, but the subject has not received sufficient attention specifically with regard to the clothing retailers—especially when compared with, for example, the recent attention given to the supply chain dynamics of food and general merchandise retailers (see Coe and Wrigley, 2007; Dawson, 2007 and the other articles of the recent special issue of this journal entitled Transnational Retail, Supply Networks and the Global Economy). In this article, I consider the extent to which Zara, a major international clothing retailer and pioneer of ‘fast fashion’ principles, provides evidence concerning the variety of ways in which retailers source globally. The findings are somewhat contradictory. On the *Milano the New School for Management and Urban Policy, The New School University, New York, NY 10011, USA. email 5 tokatlin@newschool.edu 4 ß The Author (2007). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org at UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX LIBRARY on January 5, 2011 joeg.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from