U.S. Fashion Prices Continue to Fall Even as Tariff Pressures Loom

Inflation in the fashion and footwear sector remains on a downward trend, despite the tariff pressures that are affecting companies in the sector. In May alone, fashion prices fell by almost 1%.

Fashion inflation is expected to be felt in the upcoming fall-winter season.

Modaes

12 jun 2025 - 12:25

Fashion inflation, down in the United States. Against all odds, fashion inflation in the United States has been falling for several months, at a rate not seen in the sector since the pandemic. Although many US companies have already warned of imminent price increases to offset the impact of tariffs, this trend has not yet materialized in fashion prices.

Specifically, prices in the sector, excluding seasonal and calendar effects, posted a year-on-year decline of 0.9% in May. On a month-on-month basis, moreover, fashion inflation posted another 1% decline between April and May, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Footwear, on the other hand, followed a similar, and even greater,trend, with prices falling by 1.6% year-on-year in May. Between April and May alone, moreover, these have also recorded another decline, of 0.7% month-on-month, according to the same data from the statistics office.

US fashion prices have not yet been affected by tariffs

Although yesterday the administrations of China and the United States announced a first agreement to keep tariffs frozen until the summer at between 10% and 30%, companies in the sector such as Nike, LVMH and OTB, Diesel's parent company, have already announced measures to deal with the new trade scenario. And one of the main actions is to raise prices .

As part of this same strategy, however, many of the companies in the sector accelerated their supply in the months prior to the first entry into force of the tariffs. This has generated an initial mismatch between fashion and footwear prices and the geopolitical context, which is expected to start to be felt more strongly from the autumn-winter season onwards.

While fashion prices continue to fall, inflation in the United States closed the fifth month of the year with an increase of 2.4% year-on-year, as well as a rise of 0.2% between April and May. Although the figure has fallen slightly since the beginning of the year, it is still far from the 2% target set by the US Federal Reserve for the year.