In the coming year, the fashion industry is expected to pick up speed, albeit not in double digits, posting an improvement compared to 2016, says a recent survey ‘The State of Fashion 2017’ by McKinsey and The Business of Fashion. The principle is fascinating: if we calculate the value generated by the global fashion industry, we come up with a figure of $2.4 trillion, equal to the GDP of a hypothetical seventh-biggest economy in the world after the US, China, the EU, Japan, India and the United Kingdom, because a trillion is equal to one million of billions.
According to the survey, in 2017 revenue in the fashion industry will grow on an average 2.5-3.5 per cent at a slightly faster pace than 2-2.5 per cent in 2016. The figure is however, still far from the historical annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent in the industry from 2005 to 2015. In the decade, the industry’s growth rate exceeded by several percentage points that of world GDP.
Year 2016 was a particularly difficult for the global fashion industry and more so for the medium-high and high-end segments of the market: luxury brands and medium-sized fashion companies posted a lower growth rate (0.5-1 per cent lower) than the overall average.The figure is in line with the data elaborated by Bain & Company for Altagamma Foundation. According to Worldwide Market Monitor, in 2016 sales of personal luxury goods fell by 1 per cent to € 249 billion, but a 3 per cent increase at constant rates is expected in 2017.
