FASHION INDUSTRY
FASHION & CLOTHING A GLOBALLY MOBILE INDUSTRY
It is an industry that was valued at a record £32 billion in 2018 and is growing at 5.4% a year; a higher growth rate than the economy as a whole. Despite facing a number of significant challenges – the growth of online shopping, weakness in consumer spending, potential trade wars and pressure to find more sustainable ways of doing business – fashion is booming. Marianne Curphey looks at the how the industry is adapting to change and what other businesses can learn from it.
T
he fashion industry in the UK is as large as the financial sector and employs almost 900,000 people. London is heralded
as a centre for design and innovation, and its status as an icon for ‘fashion cool’ – established in the 1960s – is still as powerful as ever. It’s an industry that’s growing. The McKinsey Global Fashion Index
forecasts growth of 3.5 to 4.5% for 2019, slightly below 2018 growth, which was around 5.4%. Compare this to forecasts for the UK economy as a whole – the European Commission predicts GDP growth of just 1.2% in 2019 and 2020 – and that forecast is contingent on the UK achieving a soft Brexit. Further afield, the fashion industry is growing strongly in North
America and in the premium and luxury segments, particularly in Asia, according to McKinsey FashionScope. China is expected to overtake the US as the largest fashion market in the world in 2019.
HOW FASHION BECAME AGILE The growth of online retailing has been a significant challenge for traditional retailers. Many have been forced to ‘self-disrupt’ and invest in omnichannel strategies as footfall declines on the high street. McKinsey’s report, The State of Fashion 2019 – a collaboration between The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company – found that social media is an increasingly important voice in dictating consumer demand and it is helping small brands to grow explosively. ➲
12 | RELOCATE | SPRING 2019
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