Zara

Zara, founded in 1974 by Amancio Ortega in a small Spanish town, has since become the undisputed king of fast fashion, where trends move at the speed of social media and customers don’t have to wait for a runway to snag the latest look. The brand’s secret? An uncanny ability to copycat high fashion designs and get them into stores faster than you can say “haute couture”—all while keeping prices within reach of the masses. But Zara’s meteoric rise hasn’t been without controversy, from accusations of poor working conditions to the ethical quandaries of disposable fashion. Inditex, Zara’s parent company, went public in 2001, and Ortega briefly became the world’s richest man, proving that profit margins can be as razor-thin as the fabric. The legacy? A retail juggernaut that redefined how the world shops, but also a reminder that what’s trendy today is landfill tomorrow.