Exclusive Joor data reveals buoyant return to growth for Italian fashion market

Fashion United

13 hours ago

On the first day of Pitti Uomo, Italy's premium menswear trade show, exclusive data from JOOR, the fashion industry's leading wholesale management ecosystem, signals a buoyant return to growth for Italian fashion.
In the first five months of 2025, wholesale sales for Italian brands grew by 20% versus the same time period last year. Meanwhile, the gross merchandise value (GMV) of fashion goods purchased by Italian retailers during this same time frame increased by 11% versus last year.
Luxury Italian brands are experiencing a positive rebound in 2025 following declines in 2023 and 2024. If this growth rate continues, the market will have recovered significant ground this year and end 2025 with wholesale sales of Italian brands just 10% below their peak in 2022. So far this year, Italian brands have recorded a +33% increase in the volume of units sold, driving the increase in GMV. At the same time, the average price point purchased from Italian brands by global retailers has decreased by -6%, illustrating an adjustment in buyers' assortment mix in the face of continued retail challenges.
Global demand for Italian brands remains strong. The top five markets—Italy, US, Germany, France, and UK—all returned to growth this year. The driving force was EMEA, recording a significant increase of +23% to last year, followed by North America at +12%. APAC, on the other hand, continues to decline, with wholesale sales -13% in 2025. This pull back is being driven most notably by China, which has experienced a dramatic decline of -41% this year, building on top of a decrease of -35% in 2024.
Domestic sales to Italian retailers represents 32% of total sales for Italian brands, making it the highest volume country and a significantly growing market at +24% to last year. While Italian brands have sold product to retailers in 122 different countries so far this year, sales volume remains highly concentrated in the EMEA region which represents 75% of total sales—a much higher penetration than EMEA's 41% of sales on the JOOR platform overall and a significant increase to the 64% EMEA represented for Italian brands in 2024.
Italian retailers placed the vast majority of their wholesale orders with Italian, French and US brands, with these three countries accounting for 78% of total purchases in 2025. Italian brands represented the largest volume of orders for Italian retailers at 39% of total purchases, followed by French brands which accounted for 23% of the total. Interestingly, Italy's retail landscape continues to be heavily driven by specialty stores, such as 10 Corso Como and Luisa via Roma, with 87% of GMV being attributed to independent retailers versus large enterprise department stores. This trend has been consistent over the past five years.
'The Italian market is a fashion powerhouse so it is fantastic to see energetic growth emerging in 2025,' commented Amanda McCormick Bacal, SVP of Marketing at JOOR. 'Our exclusive transaction data reveals a noticeable uptick for both Italian brands and retailers this year, reflecting a growing demand and vigour in the Italian luxury fashion market. To further facilitate this growth, we recently launched 'Explore Italy', our latest JOOR Passport Retailer show, designed to connect global brands with Italy's leading independent retailers.'
This exclusive in-depth analysis of the Italian market (brands and retailers) is composed of data aggregated from transactions on JOOR and provides information on industry trends and market dynamics. Date range referencing 2025 compare Jan 1-May 31, 2025 versus the same time period last year.