The increasing significance of so-called 'fast fashion' retailers such as Zara is an important part of 21st century fashion. Zara, the clothing company which was founded in Spain in 1974, has become a major international company with retail outlets to be found in shopping centres and High Streets across the world. Their approach to design is to produce clothing that is designed to tap into, if not predict the latest up-and-coming trends and made available at relatively low, affordable prices. The Zara design team work very quickly. Sometimes it can take only a couple of weeks between the initial design sketches and having the finished garments put in the shops.

For Autumn 2012 Zara produced this olive-brown wool-blend coat with a cowled collar and distinctive metal-studded sleeves. The garment quickly captured the attention of shoppers looking for a fashionable winter coat, and was written about on several Internet fashion blogs. The authors published photographs of themselves wearing their new coats, describing for the benefit of their readers just why they loved the garment and how it reflected up-and-coming trends while also being a realistic garment for a contemporary lifestyle. The collar can be worn up as the weather gets chilly, and the classic styling of the coat means that it will work with a number of looks. As a result of this coverage the coat became a best-selling garment for the company.

Zara have also benefited from having their clothes regularly worn by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (now the Princess of Wales). Whenever Catherine wears Zara clothing, such as the £49.99 red jacket she wore with a Dolce & Gabbana designer dress to Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday celebrations in May 2016, this attracts a great deal of media coverage. The resulting free publicity for Zara, particularly in the Internet age when online news articles are shared widely through social media and networking sites, proves invaluable for the firm. While the studded olive-brown coat was not worn by the Duchess, it is an excellent example of how the Internet can help publicise particular designers and brands to a wider audience.