Skywire

  Many decision makers in the global fashion sector have been paying close attention lately to the trading updates issued by such heavyweight luxury players as LVMH and Burberry.  The question on a significant number of observers’ lips has been: are there signs from the crucial “Golden Quarter” that consumer expenditure held up well over the Christmas period?  In connection with this, is a convincing picture being painted of a resilient luxury fashion industry around the globe? Or will the efforts among high-end brands to achieve sustained growth continue to face very serious barriers through 2025?  Mixed outcomes from the Golden Quarter for leading fashion players  Amid talk of the potential or actual adverse impacts of such developments across the world as the UK’s Autumn Budget, US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and Chinese shoppers cutting back, it is fair to say the luxury sector is facing plenty of challenges.  Sure enough, 2024 proved ...

  Fashion brands across the UK may have been given tentative reason for encouragement by the latest monthly review of the BDO High Street Sales Tracker.  The accountancy and business advisory firm’s tracker sets out the weekly sales changes of over 85 retailers with some 10,000 individual stores; these are principally located on high streets throughout the UK.  The review covering the four weeks to 26 th January 2025 revealed growth of +7.1% for total retail sales in discretionary sales categories, compared to the situation in January 2024. It is important to note, however, that the opening month of last year had seen an especially weak result of -0.8%.  Looking specifically at the situation for fashion, sales at the industry’s brick-and-mortar retail stores was up by +3.3% during January 2025. Again, though, that figure is against the poor performance that had been recorded in January last year, of -6.7%.  What else did we learn from the January 2025...