The Top 10 Stories that Shaped Fashion in 2024 BoF
Consumers Want Brands to Prove Theyre Worth It BoF
New CEO Elliot Hill said the brand was making progress repositioning itself; shares jumped on the news. Prada Group, led by rocket growth at little sister brand Miu Miu, reported nine-month revenues up 18 percent year-on-year in October. Still, investors are keeping an eye on deceleration at the main, more profitable Prada line. Miu Miu’s retail sales remained strong in the fourth quarter, rising 84 percent, while Prada grew by 4 percent.
- Brands should see increased resale revenue as a result, while Revive can move closer to its goal of generating nine figures in revenue in the next five years.
- Those talks ended in July, with Macy’s board unanimously voting to terminate discussions with the two parties.
- Miu Miu’s retail sales remained strong in the fourth quarter, rising 84 percent, while Prada grew by 4 percent.
- “It’s a big undertaking to go international, and to choose where to go or determine whether there’s demand there,” said Hemminger.
- But to kickstart its next stage of growth, Fashionphile is now investing in a physical retail footprint, including its own stores as well as selling wholesale to other retailers such as Saks Off Fifth and duty free shops.
An Election Year Ends With Big Questions for Fashion
Nearly one third of US adults say they intentionally bought a dupe of a premium or luxury product, and the #dupe hashtag on TikTok has nearly 6 billion views. Consumers are not only looking to spend less, but they are also trying to stretch their money further. Over 60 percent of consumers in the US and UK say they are attempting to save money on fashion “often” or “as much as possible.” In the US, this figure is as high as 75 percent. In 2022, consumer confidence indexes in the US, Eurozone and China hit their lowest levels since 2005, and confidence in China once again neared record lows in August 2024. In the first half of 2024, consumer confidence was about 10 to 30 points below 2019 averages across the Eurozone, US and China, though confidence levels in the Eurozone and US are ticking up slightly from 2023. Retail and wholesale made up about 30 percent of sales last year, and could account for half of the business in the future.
“We’ve spent many years establishing our primary platform, which is the Rebag website and our stores, but now we’re in the next chapter of magnifying that,” he said. By partnering with established retailers, Rebag can reach new “ecosystems of customers” outside the fashion hotbeds in New York, California and Florida, Gorra added. Simply opening a retail location is not enough to justify its costs, however.
Uoma Beauty Founder Sues the Brand’s New Owners
The company forecasted lower-than-expected operating profit for 2025, citing slower sales growth and increased volatility due to US tariffs. The company appointed three new Bof casino login directors to its board, including Starboard Value CEO Jeffrey Smith, as part of an agreement to resolve a months-long dispute over the company’s performance in the skincare and beauty segment. McCartney, daughter of the Beatles’ Paul McCartney, launched her eponymous label in partnership with the Gucci Group, then a division of what is now Kering, in 2001.
As Indian men become increasingly fashion-conscious, global luxury brands must adapt to a rapidly evolving market with growing competition from local designers. The complex routing of fashion goods across retailers, brands and manufacturers also results in long lead times with limited flexibility. Similarly, the uptick in supply chain disruptions also poses a challenge for brands. When the pandemic disrupted the trend cycle, consumers, with extra savings in their wallets and a desire to experiment, flocked to trying on, labelling and sharing aesthetics. The fashion press covered each surge and brands and retailers, eager to boost sales, merchandised accordingly.
Why Menswear Is Getting a Marketing Refresh
John Donahoe, chief executive since 2020, stepped down in September after calls for his ousting grew louder. Nike then tapped Elliott Hill, who retired from the company in 2020 after a 32-year career starting as an intern, to lead the brand. Regardless, a second Trump term will have sweeping implications for the fashion industry.
In the US, the average proportion of discounted fashion items in the first half of 2024 rose 5 percentage points year on year. Nike said markdowns affected around 44 percent of its assortment on average in 2024, compared to just 19 percent in 2022. While inventory challenges are complex for most retail industries, the fashion industry faces distinct issues. We are future focused, committed to protecting our planet through our products and our people. Working closely with local supplier partners enables us to offer you the highest quality, very latest design trends and most sustainable products. CNC Agency has emerged as fashion’s go-to partner for in-person activations, collaborating with brands from luxury houses like Prada and Hermès to beauty giants like MAC.
This week the European Union announced plans to water down sustainability reporting and due diligence regulations, which would have been among the strictest globally. Critics say the retreat puts fashion’s environmental and human rights ambitions at risk. Malique Morris is Direct-to-Consumer Correspondent at The Business of Fashion. He is based in New York and covers digital-native brands and shifts in the online shopping industry. Fashion start-ups can no longer foot the bill for costly online returns, but they have to find ways to reduce the costs of returns without losing customers. For some industry observers, there’s a seemingly endless well of potential for brands, and the platforms that serve them, to grow within the booming resale economy — and turning an inventory issue into a money maker is an auspicious starting point.
Over time, BoF’s pioneering approach has made it the fashion industry’s leading source of business intelligence, and one of its most respected and influential voices, simply because we won’t find BoF’s original reporting, analysis and advice anywhere else. The Business of Beauty brings the same kind of agenda-setting coverage to the beauty and wellness space. Today, its talented team of correspondents, editors, analysts, engineers, designers, marketers and others in London, New York, Paris and Milan. All the while, online resellers are increasingly competing with traditional brick-and-mortar secondhand retailers, whose businesses have also flourished in recent years. For instance, Winmark Corporation, the owner of thrift chain Plato’s Closet, saw sales climb nearly 50 percent and net income by one-third between 2018 and 2023. Meanwhile, Japan-based luxury consignment shop 2nd Street plans to more than double its footprint in the US to 100 stores by 2029.
Shoppers are not eager to increase their fashion budgets, even as economic prospects and consumer sentiment improve in some regions. Over 80 percent of shoppers plan to spend the same or less on clothing, footwear and accessories in 2025. Over 40 percent of shoppers in the US, UK and Germany are spending less on clothing, footwear and accessories than they did a year ago. In the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2025 Executive Survey, consumer confidence and appetite to spend was ranked by fashion executives as the top risk to growth. Wholesale has been an avenue for Fashionphile to enter international markets.
With 60 percent of brands behind on sustainability targets, reducing over-production and cutting waste through cost-effective initiatives may place brands in the best position to achieve targets and maintain the bottom line. Inaccurate stock purchasing across sizes is estimated to result in profit loss of up to 20 percent on average. For example, Lululemon attributed slower growth in the US in the first quarter of 2024 in part to insufficient inventory and stocks-outs in smaller women’s sizes. Excess stock in the fashion industry was estimated to be worth between $70 billion and $140 billion in sales in 2023. For brands and retailers, the race to merchandise and market around it is on.
Last year, perfume sales rose 12 percent to $9.5 billion in the US alone according to consumer insights firm Circana. It’s been almost a year since Italian prosecutors linked Armani and then Dior to sweatshops on the outskirts of Milan in an investigation expected to bring up to a dozen more brands under the microscope. In response, officials and industry leaders have rushed to tighten controls over the luxury supply chain. Leverage owned outlets and resale platforms to attract entry-level shoppers who may one day buy at full price. Additionally, resale can give brands more control over the quality of their secondhand goods in circulation, with the bonus effect of increasing circularity.