2025: France’s Prêt-à-Porter Industry at a Crossroads

The French ready-to-wear of 2025 bears no resemblance to that which filled the shopping streets a decade ago. In recent years, the country has lost thousands of fashion stores and tens of thousands of jobs, according to the Alliance du Commerce, while trade court hearings have become part of the sector’s routine. Between 2013 and 2024 alone, the fashion trade cut around 14,000 outlets and nearly 47,000 jobs.

In a multi-brand scenario in low hours, shopping streets with less density and empty stores, the network of medium-sized chains is becoming increasingly fragile, trapped between high rents, rising costs and consumption that no longer compensates for price increases.

The Internet has finally disrupted the model. Independent retailers have seen their market share plummet from 25% in 1996 to barely single digits today, while many customers use physical stores as fitting rooms before buying online. Industry federations describe an ecosystem in which large chains, digital platforms and the desertification of urban centers leave little room for intermediate companies.

In France, the mid-segment crisis has arrived later than in other major European markets and in 2025 everything has accelerated. Naf Naf entered for the third time in five years in redressement judiciaire, with some 700 workers at stake, and ended up in the hands of Beaumanoir. Jennyfer, an icon of the teenage closet, was liquidated in the spring and only part of its 220 stores were saved, also thanks to Beaumanoir and Celio’s offer. Kaporal, the Marseille denim brand, fell with the loss of some 280 jobs.

Ikks, a key player in the casual segment went into receivership in the fall, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk, although in December it was rescued from liquidation by Santiago Cucci, current president of the HoldIkks holding company, and Michaël Benabou, co-founder of Veepee. Princesse tam tam and Comptoir des Cotonniers (controlled by Japan’s Fast Retailing), also in bankruptcy, were added to the list, in addition to networks such as Zapa or Christine Laure, under close surveillance by the courts.

In the last year, historic brands such as Naf Naf, Jennyfer, Ikks and Comptoir des Cotonniers have gone to court

This is not a sudden slump in consumption, but the visible phase of a long-standing erosion. The French are buying more and more clothes, but spending less per garment. Refashion estimates that in 2024, some 42 garments were purchased per person, while the sector’s turnover has been declining for more than a decade. The result is more volume, less value, constant pressure on margins and a price race in which national chains are at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the global giants.

Competition is no longer coming from Zara or H&M alone. The shift in spending towards ultra-fast fashion platforms has become one of the central factors of the crisis. At the same time, digital second-hand, with players such as Vinted, cannibalizes part of the entry-level purchases. Consumers buy a lot of clothes, but increasingly concentrate their purchases on a few platforms and international brands, while medium-sized chains are left in no man’s land, with heavy structures and a less loyal and limited clientele with less purchasing power.

Naf Naf sums up well the type of crisis that has taken hold in the sector. A leading player in women’s ready-to-wear in the 1990s, in five years the chain has gone through three bankruptcy proceedings and several short-lived sales to groups specializing in restructuring. In 2024, it was acquired by Turkey’s Migiboy Tekstil and, less than a year later, it was back in court due to cash flow problems. The unions denounced a lack of transparency, and the closure of the Spanish business after three decades in the market shows the extent to which the international perimeter has become unsustainable for certain brands.

The 2025 wave came after high-impact closures such as Camaïeu, liquidated in 2022 with the loss of 2,600 jobs, or San Marina, whose liquidation in 2023 meant the closure of 163 stores and the elimination of 680 jobs. Esprit left the French market after the liquidation of its subsidiary in 2024, with a hundred stores and 145 employees affected. At the same time, operators such as C&A, Go Sport or Le Coq Sportif have experienced difficulties.

From a nineties icon to a disputed asset: Naf Naf has chained owners and visits to the courts without finding its place on the new fashion map.

On the regulatory front, France has chosen a clear enemy. The bill known as anti-fast fashion and adopted in the Senate in June 2025, seeks to reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry and curb the model of platforms such as Shein and Temu. The government has presented the measures as a response to a climate problem and competitive against traditional players. During the debate in the Senate, lawmakers chose to focus the law on ultra fast fashion and leave out affordable French chains such as Kiabi and La Redoute.

Major international groups and a number of family-owned French players have taken advantage of the crisis to strengthen their store and brand portfolios. Groups such as Beaumanoir have used the liquidations to select strategic locations and consolidate their positions in mid-range and accessible retailing. At the other extreme, thousands of independent stores are disappearing almost silently, and some of the staffs of liquidated chains are leaving fashion retailing for good.

French consumers continue to buy fashion, but supply is becoming more polarized. At one end of the spectrum is the low-price, constantly changing offer of international platforms. At the other, a network of brands trying to reposition themselves in higher segments, with quality, proximity or sustainability discourses to justify a higher price. The historical space of national ready-to-wear is narrowing every year between the two extremes of the market.