Tackling Fashions Excess Inventory Problem BoF

Today, a successful store doesn’t only convey legitimacy for an online operation or serve as a billboard for a brand; it’s a crucial way to differentiate a business in a market with many players with similar value propositions. “Estée Lauder Companies’s lack of speed happened as prestige beauty became nimbler,” he said, adding that the entry of so many new indie brands and “faster-moving” consumers had created downward pressure. Increasing the pace of innovation, and adding new initiatives like a dedicated fragrance lab in Paris slated to open later this year, as well as increasing clinical credentials for its skincare brands are valuable and tangible. High-end retailers including Printemps are expressing interest in crypto payments as they search for new pockets of wealth to combat a sector slowdown. If implemented, a TikTok ban will have far-reaching consequences for the many fashion brands who rely on the TikTok to do marketing — and, since the roll-out of its now-popular TikTok Shop — even generate sales. Department stores joined forces and faced existential threats in an increasingly challenged environment.

The Business of Fashion Podcast

It is a network of fashion creatives, business professionals and entrepreneurs around the world, delivering fashion business intelligence on emerging designers, disruptive technologies and global brands that are making their mark on the industry. He realised that he had a unique opportunity to break down the barriers by providing rigorous business journalism befitting an estimated $2.5 trillion fashion industry employing millions of people around the world. By bringing them together as one global community, he and his team could share and learn from each other as the industry was being disrupted by technology, shifting consumer values and globalisation.

The ninth annual State of Fashion report by McKinsey & Company and BoF Insights, The Business of Fashion’s data and advisory team, reveals that economic and geopolitical challenges, combined with shifts in customer values, will define a turbulent year Bof casino ahead. Download the full report to understand the 10 themes that will shape the industry and the opportunities for growth in 2025. This article first appeared in The State of Fashion 2025, an in-depth report on the global fashion industry, co-published by BoF and McKinsey & Company. Create campaigns that highlight the craftsmanship and quality of products, the innovation behind them or competitive prices to justify a purchase to shoppers. The denim label Mother’s first store burned to the ground days before opening.

• The Business of Beauty brings the same kind of agenda-setting coverage to the beauty and wellness space.
• LXR specialised in selling secondhand designer handbags to department stores such as Lord & Taylor and Century21.
• Elsewhere, ideas like “underconsumptioncore” and de-influencing have filtered into discussion.
• The company collects a commission from what’s sold on resale sites and charges a service fee for the refurbishing process.
• The complex routing of fashion goods across retailers, brands and manufacturers also results in long lead times with limited flexibility.

Key People

The hot new brands favoured by early adopters are still nascent, with smaller social media followings, placement in niche retailers and offline cachet in trendy fashion circles. Spotting which ones are breaking ahead of the pack could mean tapping the next Byredo. The category accounted for 15 percent of overall spending on prestige beauty in 2024 per retail analytics firm Daash, and shows no signs of slowing down.

“What we know we are looking for is a ban in consumer products,” EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told Reuters in an interview. “‘Clue is telling this story from the Midwest that is often overlooked by French perfumery or marketing departments out of New York, or influencers out of LA,” said Sinks. According to investigators in Milan, factories producing for the brands were operating illegally and exploiting workers. Dior and Armani have said the allegations don’t reflect their commitment to ethical practices, but prosecutors say the issues uncovered by the probe are systemic and entrenched. Around a dozen more brands could still be implicated, with further cases expected in the coming months.

Millions of low-cost fashion products are showing up in thrift stores and on resale sites, but that’s not curbing the industry’s primary growth. Fashionphile bet big in the wholesale category with its acquisition of Canadian B2B resale company LXRandCo, Inc. in November 2023. LXR specialised in selling secondhand designer handbags to department stores such as Lord & Taylor and Century21.

De La Faverie said the plan would also see its business expand its presence in what he called “consumer-preferred, high-growth channels,” like e-commerce, specialty retail, European pharmacies and travel retail in the Western countries. But in all those channels — especially Sephora and Ulta Beauty — its brands will be jostling for share of wallet with some of those more agile indie brands, as well as buzzy brands with celebrity founders like Hailey Bieber’s Rhode and Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty. The company can both create and deploy plans around internal restructuring, changes to its procurement strategy and overall fat-trimming with relative ease. But fixing its core issues, and rebuilding desire and demand for its key brands — which include its namesake line, Clinique, La Mer, MAC Cosmetics — in its top markets, the US and China, will be more difficult. LVMH’s premium partnership made the most headlines — and the cut for the opening ceremony. Christian Dior provided the costumes for Lady Gaga, Aya Nakamura and Celine Dion’s live, televised performances along the Seine and under the Eiffel Tower; while Louis Vuitton trunks were the centrepiece of a dance across the Pont Neuf.

In a new collaboration with Marni, the running brand known for its chunky, cushioned midsoles is looking to catch the eye of a new fashion audience — without compromising the performance DNA that’s made it an emerging sneaker powerhouse. Sales slid 6 percent in its second quarter, with a further 10 to 12 percent slide now forecast for the following quarter. The department store chain, led by new CEO Tony Spring, spent much of the first half of the year fending off a buyout bid from real-estate-focused investing firm Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management.