A family-controlled European group uses innovation, automation, and clever branding to rush its clothes to demanding young customers via stores on every high street and in every shopping mall worldwide.

This could be a description of the modern champions of fast fashion: Zara, owned by Inditex of Spain, or Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz. But 25 years ago, this was Benetton, a company my fashion-conscious teenage daughter has not heard of.