Why This Mompreneur Is Sad Over the Collapse of Fast Fashion Mall Stores

The news came this week that fashion retailer H&M plans to close 160 stores this year, and I couldn’t be more upset.

It wasn’t like the news was a total surprise. We could have expected it.

After all, similar mall staples Gymboree, GAP, Francesca’s and other retailers have started to shutter down in a response to tumbling sales and revenue.

Blame it on the uncontrollable growth of ecommerce and online boutiques and trendy shops like TopShop, Nasty Gal, Revolve, Fashion NOVA and others that do not have retail stores and a new generation of consumers, Millenials and GenZ, that are perfectly fine shopping for clothes, shoes and make up online and without trying them on first, we are clearly in a new era for fashion.

Still, I like “Fast Fashion”.

Maybe I’m a unicorn on this because when I posted the news on one of my Facebook pages about H&M closing stores, my more stylish friends said stuff like they had long since abandoned stores like H&M and Zara because they thought these stores had navigated away from cute, chic styles and abandoned their core aesthetic and initial appeal in exchange for the fast fashion trend.

This trend is defined as “runway to stores” and noted for cheap replicas of…