French ready-to-wear between collapse and hope

The French ready-to-wear sector is reeling under the pressure of fast fashion and second-hand fashion. 2025 was marked by a series of bankruptcies, receiverships and liquidations. However, experts believe a recovery is possible, driven by a renewed focus on brand DNA, innovation and higher positioning.

At the end of this year, the IKKS brand was acquired, but will lose half of its employees. Jott was placed into receivership and Anne Fontaine’s redevelopment plan was approved. The list of struggling or defunct French companies in the sector is long: these include Camaïeu, Kookaï, Jennyfer, André, San Marina, Minelli, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse Tam Tam and Kaporal.

Almost 1,500 clothing stores closed in France in 2024, according to a parliamentary report. The Textile Industry Association reports that the number of employees has fallen from 400,000 in the 1970s to 60,000 today. However, this number does not include retail employees, whose number was 70,000 at the end of 2023, according to the National Clothing Association.

Brutal “Impoverishment” and “Sharp Decline”

Traditional players have navigated the difficult transition to online sales, Covid-19 and inflation. Now they are competing with second-hand and ultra-fast fashion. This represents a “profound change,” said Gildas Minvielle, director of the economic observatory at the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM). According to IFM, 13 percent of sales and almost 30 percent of purchased volume now flow through these two sales channels.

“The market share that these new players are gaining is very significant and detrimental to more established companies,” Minvielle told AFP. “If the market had been busy, one would have hoped that there would be room for everyone – but that is not the case.”

With an average price of nine euros per item at Shein or Temu – three times less than traditional mid-priced products – these Asian corporations are causing brutal “impoverishment”. Minvielle adds that this happens “in a context where purchasing power is not very strong.” To understand the cause of the “sharp decline,” one has to go back to the 1990s. That was when the “first generation fast fashion brands” like Zara and H&M emerged, explains Benoît Heilbrunn, philosopher and marketing professor at the ESCP Business School. They offered “collections that change weekly to force people to buy.”

“French brands have failed to keep up because they did not have and still do not have an industrial model,” notes the brand specialist. He highlights that 97 percent of the textiles consumed in France are imported. “Another problem is that French textile brands haven’t had a story to tell for years,” he criticizes. “We never talk about innovation, we never talk about products.”

“Death spiral”

Fashion and retail expert Françoise Clément agrees. She points to brands that have stayed in their “comfort zone”. They tried to “lure consumers with promotions, but ultimately did not create any value”. According to Clément, a former textile director at Carrefour, brands need to stick to their “core DNA” and offer “clear positioning” to survive.

The ready-to-wear sector is like an “hourglass,” she explains: the upper part of the hourglass, representing luxury and heritage brands, remains strong because of its prestige. At the bottom end, there is a price race to the bottom – a “death spiral” that still finds an audience. In between lies the middle price segment, which has the “biggest difficulties”.

Brands in the mid-price segment must “diversify and position themselves in a higher quality” and, above all, must not imitate fast fashion, says Clément. The future requires a balance between “quality, attractiveness, innovation and desirability”. She cites examples such as Lacoste and Aigle, Le Slip Français for products made in France, and Decathlon, which combines “accessibility and innovation.” The clothing crisis is “not inevitable,” she emphasizes. Despite the widespread “gloomy mood,” there are “opportunities” for “proactive brands.”

The annual State of Fashion report from BoF and McKinsey identifies several strategic development areas. These include the “necessary” use of artificial intelligence, the diversification of production locations to counteract the “turbulence” of international tariffs, higher positioning and the integration of a second-hand offer. It is an extensive program.