Inditex SA may be the biggest fashion company you’ve never heard of. It’s the $183 billion Spanish business behind global retail powerhouse Zara—the brand known for rapid delivery of runway-inspired, affordable clothes—and some bizarre marketing imagery to promote them.
For the Bloomberg Originals mini-documentary Inside the Secret World of Zara, the company opened its doors so we could witness the lightning-fast logistics operation that’s bolstered its business. Zara is synonymous with what has been referred to as “fast fashion” and is responsible for as much as three quarters of its parent company’s annual sales. But the industry has been bad news for the planet, responsible for a significant amount of carbon emissions and plastic waste. Add to that competition from Asia, and Zara—as with retailers like it—may soon face a reckoning.
