French sales of textiles and clothing fell by 1.7% in 2025

In France, following a December marked by a 4.7% drop in textile and clothing sales, excluding online sales, provisional figures from the Institut Français de la Mode indicate a 1.7% decline for the sector in 2025, after the stability achieved in 2024.

December temperatures, 3.5 degrees Celsius above the 35-year norm recorded by Météo-France, are thought to have severely hit year-end sales of long-sleeved items. This unusual mildness spared no brick-and-mortar retail channel.

Independent retailers were the hardest hit, down 6.8% in December. Department stores and popular stores (Monoprix) fell by 4.7% over the period. Specialist chains were down 4.2%, while mass-market chains (Kiabi, Gémo, etc.) managed to limit their decline to 3.1%.

These figures, which will shortly be supplemented by online sales data, stand in contrast to the stability posted a year earlier, when the fashion sector was essentially flat in 2024 (+0.1%). This was a welcome sign at the time, following the 1.3% drop recorded between 2022 and 2023.

A few days ago, data from the Fédération Nationale de l’Habillement indicated a 2.3% drop in sales for independent fashion retailers in 2025. The Procos federation for specialist retail, meanwhile, reported a contraction of 0.8%, with a marked drop of 4.5% for clothing, and 2.6% for beauty.