Ever heard of Zara? Good, then you heard it here first. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re probably not much of a world traveler. Zara is a hot brand that has just become the world’s largest clothing retailer. That honor was given to Gap until this week. A slumping U.S. consumer sales market has dropped Gap’s revenues by 10 percent in the first quarter of their fiscal year. For your edification: Zara clothing is trendy , chic, inexpensive, you can’t buy it online and there are 3,900 Zara stores in the world, compared to 3,100 Gap outlets. There are five Zara stores in New York City and surrounding areas. The retail giant was born in Spain (in the bedroom of 72-year-old founder and chairman Amancio Ortega, who made bathrobes) and the first store opened in 1975. Now you can shop in Zara stores in Bahrain, Croatia and Iceland. British Vogue says the Zara philosophy is fast fashion: they quickly take designer runway looks and turn them into mass audience items, like the one pictured. They aren’t interested in any celebrity designers coming into their fold. Owned by Inditex, they proudly state it takes only two weeks to get an item from drawing board to store shelf. But guess what? You can buy online from their home and bedding line, although you’ll have to translate Euros to dollars. That’s not so hard: here, use this to do it. Gap, on the other hand, has an aging and eroding customer base, according to The Guardian of Britain, and they’ve not been successful enough at appealing to younger customers. The Zara brand does have 24 U.S. stores, in big cities (Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Miami and more) and some small (Canoga Park, Garden City, Wayne). You can find all their U.S. locations on their Web site.