MGFB35: Fashion Stocks End a Lackluster Year with Modest 1.9% Gain

Weak year for the fashion business on the international stock markets. The Modaes Global Fashion Benchmark (MGFB35) closed 2025 with a rise of only 1.9%, weighed down by the negative performance of twelve of the 35 stocks that make up the selective, which measures the aggregate capitalization of the sector’s international giants. PVH, Asos, Adidas, Birkenstock, Prada, Zalando, Hugo Boss, Puig, Nike, VF, JD Sports and Hermès closed 2025 in negative territory, preventing fashion from catching up with the main international stock market indexes.

The Dow Jones, the U.S. benchmark, ended 2025 up 13.7%, the S&P 500 rose 17.3% and the Nasdaq rose 21.3%. The Ibex35, the Spanish benchmark, also achieved double-digit gains, with an increase of 49.3%, as did the Paris stock exchange, up 10.42%, London, 15.1%, Frankfurt, 23%, and Milan, 31.5%. Tokyo gained 12.1%, Hong Kong 27.8% and Shanghai 18.4%.

The performance of the euro in the foreign exchange market weighed on the MGFB35, which measures the capitalization in euros of the 35 listed companies that make up the selective index. At constant exchange rates, the SIMB35 would have recorded an annual increase of 4.7%, which is also weak in a context of good performance on the global stock markets.

The twelve bearish companies of the year in the MGFB35, including groups from the luxury, sports and e-commerce sectors, were counterbalanced by the fourteen stocks in the selective index that posted double-digit annual gains. While the biggest fall, of 36.6%, was for the US company PVH, the year’s winner was Tapestry, also from the US, which almost doubled its value with a rise of 95.6%.

PVH recorded the biggest drop of the year, while Tapestry, also from the United States, led the year’s gains

China’s Chow Tai Fook followed, up 84.1%; Chile’s Falabella, up 78.8%; and U.S. retailers Ralph Lauren, Estée Lauder and Macy’s, up 53.1%, 39.7% and 30.2%, respectively.

Among the major European luxury conglomerates, France’s Kering led the increases, with an annual rise of 26.3%, closely followed by Switzerland’s Richemont, with an increase of 24.8%. The U.S. group Capri (parent company of Michael Kors), recorded an annual increase of 15.9% in the year after renouncing its integration in Tapestry following the rejection of the operation by the U.S. antitrust authorities. Global luxury leader LVMH was the sector’s loser for the year with the lowest MGFB35 gain of just 1.5%.

In luxury, there were other major contrasts between winners and losers on the trading floor. Britain’s Burberry was among the bulls, with an annual increase in value of 29.5%, while France’s Hermès devalued by 8.6%, Germany’s Hugo Boss by 19.9% and Italy’s Prada (listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange) lost 25.2%.

In the large-scale retail sector, the best performer was Sweden’s H&M, whose shares rose by 24.7% year on year. Spain’s Inditex, the sector leader, recovered at the end of the year, with an annual increase of 13%, while the U.S.-based Gap and Japan’s Fast Retailig (Uniqlo’s parent company) rose by 8.3% and 5.8%, respectively.

Kering was the best of the major European luxury conglomerates, H&M the best in mass retailing, and Anta the least bad in sports

In sports, only China’s Anta achieved a positive stock market performance in 2025, with an increase of 3.5%. On the other hand, Germany’s Adidas was the third worst performer on the SIMB35, with a fall of 28.5%. Nike of the United States and JD Sports of the United Kingdom fell by 11.9% and 15.8%, respectively.

In ecommerce, the two representatives of the sector were in the bearish group: Germany’s Zalando recorded an annual devaluation of 22.5% and the UK’s Asos, a decline of 36.3%, the second worst performance of the year in SIMB35.

Updated monthly by Modaes, the MGFB35 is the result of multiplying the previous month’s value by dividing the sum of the current month’s market capitalizations in euros of the 35 companies that make up the selective by the sum of the previous month’s capitalizations, taking into account a corrective factor if there are changes in the number of shares. The MGFB35 was launched in September 2011, with a trading base of 10,000 points.