Zara is the Spanish fast-fashion brand that serves as the flagship of the Inditex group. Inditex, short for Industria de Diseño Textil, is the Spanish fashion company that also owns brands such as Bershka, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius and Oysho.
Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera opened the first Zara shop in A Coruña, Galicia, in 1975. The business was initially intended to be called “Zorba,” after the film Zorba the Greek, but the name was changed to Zara after the founders discovered that a nearby bar already used the original name.
Zara became known for a rapid design-to-store cycle. Designers and store teams monitor customer demand, while a closely coordinated supply and distribution network allows new products to reach shops quickly. This fast-response model helped make Zara one of the world’s most influential fast-fashion retailers.
Bershka is a related Inditex brand, but it is not the group’s flagship. Mango and Desigual are Spanish fashion companies, yet neither belongs to Inditex. Zara’s corporate parent was established in 1985, ten years after the first Zara store opened.