Is Massimo Dutti A Fast Fashion Brand? An Expert Breakdown!

Sometimes you just need a slightly affordable luxury brand of good quality to fill your wardrobes with elegant and chic pieces that do not completely put a dent in your wallet.

Massimo Dutti offers you the opportunity to adorn high-street fashion that feels like designer clothing but costs way less than that.

Armando Lasauca founded Massimo Dutti in 1985 as a menswear brand in Barcelona, Spain before it was purchased by Inditex in 1991, a Spanish multinational clothing firm that owns some of the biggest brands in the world including Zara, Oysho, and Stradivarius.

After Inditex took over, it added clothing items for women and kids into the mix as well, created with fine tailoring and good quality fabric such as cotton and cashmere to provide a shiny and luxurious look to the garments.

One look at its website makes the words classy, luxury, chic, and designer pop into your head. Even though Massimo Dutti cannot be considered high-fashion, it teeters somewhere in the middle of high-street fashion and understated luxury.

However, among the brands under Inditex, it is the most sophisticated and sober brand of all.

Being a regular at Massimo Dutti should automatically label you as one of the most stylish individuals existing because of its sleek and modern designs in clothing, accessories, and beauty products.

Every stitch of the garments is made of the most luxurious fabrics to create a refined look which may be the reason why it is not as cheap as one would expect of a brand promoting itself as affordable.

Nevertheless, it is cheaper compared to its rivals despite the high-quality materials used in its production.

It cannot be considered a fast fashion brand because its clothes are premium quality and made to last over years.

It is one of the factors that it prides itself over; the use of elegant fabrics that can compete with the most high-end fashion brands in the world.

Sustainability Rating: 5/10

Category: Clothing, Accessories, Beauty Products, Shoes, Bags

For: Women, Men

Products: Casual Wear, Outerwear, Denim, Formal Wear, Pumps, Heels, Purse

Style: Chic, Sleek, Elegant, Classic 

Quality: Medium and High

Prices: $10.79 - $1700.00 (US)

Size: 4XS-9XL (International Size)

Fabrics: Hemp, Polyester Blend, Leather, Viscose, Spandex, Cotton Blend, Wool, Nylon, Polyester, Cotton, Acrylic, Silk, Acetate

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: No

Ethical and Fair: No

Recycling: Yes

Manufacturing Countries: Pakistan, China, India, Spain, Vietnam, Turkey, Morocco, Bangladesh

Certifications: GOTS

Despite not starting as a sustainable brand, Massimo Dutti has spent recent years trying to reform itself into an environmentally responsible retailer to reduce the impact of its practices on the Earth.

It began to seriously draw up environmental plans in 2002 and has been improving ever since, even though it still cannot be called a highly eco-friendly brand.

One of its most remarkable actions is that it began the use of organic cotton in the manufacturing of the products and stayed vigilant of the raw materials being used.

According to its website, Massimo Dutti found a 91% increase in the use of organic cotton in 2020 which is an admirable feat for a luxury brand.

Moreover, it turned to recycled polyester and recycled fibers as raw materials to reduce the effect on biodiversity and get into the habit of recycling.

Its Join Life label created quite a buzz in the industry as it promoted the use of eco-friendly raw materials like recycled polyester and organic cotton.

Through this label, Massimo Dutti aimed to adopt processes that would save as much water and energy as possible. Due to such initiatives, it received a score of 50% by the Fashion Transparency Index in 2020 which highlights that its efforts are bearing fruits!

Although Massimo Dutti is a retailer, it is not ignorant of the factories that supply the luxurious clothes displayed in its stores throughout the world. It ensures that the factories comply with the health and safety procedures laid out by the brand.

Interestingly, Massimo Dutti introduced an initiative to collect used garments in stores and in containers placed all over Spain to prolong the sustainability of garments.

Similar to this, it has collaborated with more organizations and recycling companies to make a change in the world! It is not only bringing a change in its brand but advocating the use of sustainable materials to others in the industry as well.

However, it is still far from being a 100% sustainable brand as most of its products are made from regular cotton and polyester and only the products under Join Life are completely eco-friendly.

Also, it employs the use of factories located in countries like Turkey, Pakistan, and India that are known for child labor and unfair wages.

One look at its online store also reveals that it uses leather, wool, and silk in many of the products that are acquired through cruel and merciless acts against animals. Thus, we can not term the brand as cruelty-free which drops its rating on our ethical scoreboard.

It is commendable, however, that Massimo Dutti aims to be transparent in some ways because it publishes a list of its manufacturers on Inditex’s main website. Still, many of its practices and procedures are unknown which hinders the brand from receiving a high score by other transparency indices.

But it has laid out many plans for sustainability on its website aiming to further reduce the impact of water and poisonous emissions in the supply chain by 2030. In addition, it has announced its initiative to completely remove the use of plastic bags in all stores and become 100% sustainable.

These future goals are quite ambitious and praiseworthy as Massimo Dutti is changing for the better and it is apparent for the whole world to see.

Final thoughts! While Massimo Dutti cannot be categorized as a sustainable brand yet, it can also not be called fast fashion as it is too luxurious and high-quality for that label.

Moreover, fast fashion is usually quite ignorant towards environmentally friendly practices, but Massimo Dutti, as we have pointed out, is far from it! 

References:

https://social.massimodutti.com/paper/en/compromiso-sostenibilidad/

https://www.whowhatwear.com/massimo-dutti-review/slide3