In 2024, fashion market trends recorded a very slight growth in spending compared to 2023: +0.2%, four points below the pre-pandemic market value. But the January sales showed a negative result and forecasts for the year remained cautious, pushing the return to pre-Covid levels to 2026. Among the most relevant facts of the market for the past year are the further growth of promotional purchases to 54%, the shift of consumer traffic, and therefore purchases, from city shops to factory outlet centres and shopping malls, and the online which shows a stable value share (around 17%) thanks mainly to brick & clicks.
Among the sectors, there was a recovery in adult outerwear, especially women’s wear, and the continuing difficulties of children’s fashion, penalised by the demographic effect. Also in difficulty were underwear and hosiery and accessories/footwear.
Concern about the effects of the turbulent international political situation on the general economic situation is directing consumers towards strategies to defend their purchasing power. Clothing marks the pace, dropping two points compared to last autumn, with immediate consequences on the market: -3% in January 2025, a result on which the negative trend of sales (-4.2%) weighs heavily. This last negative figure is a clear indicator of a certain impatience with this historic form of promotion and is mirrored by the doubling of non-buyers from 7% in 2023 to 15% this year. There are several reasons for this disaffection: the fear of ‘artful’ price manoeuvres, the poor and shoddy assortment, the possibility of taking advantage of offers all the time, which makes sales less and less a ‘unique occasion’.
Starting from spending intentions for S/S 2025, forecasts for the new year are still characterised by uncertainty: a wait-and-see attitude prevails (waiting for the new beach and holiday collections, the summer sales, the evolution of the weather situation) and only one consumer out of four declares that he wants to buy immediately in March/April. The forecast for 2025 stands at +0.9% in terms of consumption, while the outlook for 2026 is more positive with a market ready to move decisively closer to pre-pandemic levels.
