Fashion Studio – Best Year Yet as UK Luxury Sector Shows Growth

As part of Fashion-Enter Ltd’s ongoing commitment to sustainability we have switched resources and we are concentrating our efforts on one-piece-flow. Over 75 designers work with our Fashion Studio. There’s nothing we can’t do with the amazing technical team from tech packs to 12 to grading to perfect show samples. We have noticed an increase in the rise of luxury, small brands coming to the Fashion Studio service, and as you can see by the figures below this is on trend for the generic fashion industry. 

The UK’s luxury sector is now contributing £81bn a year to the UK economy, a new landmark report reveals, and is helping the Exchequer raise £25.5bn in tax receipts – enough to fund the development of 51 mid-sized hospitals or train 373,134 nurses for the National Health Service (NHS). However, authors of the new research warn that without tax reform and changes to intellectual property laws, the sector’s meteoric growth could stall.

Luxury in the Making, a new report from Walpole, produced in association with Frontier Economics, has found that the luxury sector’s economic contribution – equivalent to 3.7% of GDP – has grown an impressive 69% over the last five years to 2022, with companies operating within British luxury now supporting 454,000 jobs across a range of roles – from design and digital, to high-tech manufacturing and heritage crafts.

The sector’s growth comes despite a challenging macro environment, including Britain’s departure from the European Union, the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain issues and rising energy costs.

Helen Brocklebank, Walpole’s chief executive said: “We are delighted to publish our first study for five years, and the most comprehensive to date, demonstrating that the British luxury sector is valued at £81bn and vital to the UK economy We have quantified the significant high-quality employment offered by the sector throughout every region in the UK across hospitality, retail and manufacturing. The UK luxury industry deserves recognition and support to ensure our high-growth sector continues to flourish.”

Walpole – the UK’s only sector body for luxury brands representing companies including Alexander McQueen, Aston Martin, Burberry, Claridge’s, Fortnum & Mason, Glenfiddich, Harrods, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Wedgwood – forecasts that, by 2028, British luxury could be contributing £125bn a year to the economy, meaning the sector would be generating more revenue than the life sciences and construction industries, which are currently worth £97bn a year and £110bn a year, respectively.

Walpole’s research, the most comprehensive to date, also examines the jobs and careers the luxury sector provides, how the industry benefits the people it employs and its impact on the broader UK economy, cutting across sub-sectors including whisky, sparkling wine, automotive, hospitality and fashion. 

Michael Ward, chairman at Walpole and managing director of Harrods, said: “British luxury has shown incredible resilience and strength over the past unprecedented few years. Since our last report, published in 2019, the sector has faced many challenges – namely the effects of Covid-19 lockdowns across the world, establishing new trading relationships with the EU, greater fragmentation in global trade, and the scrapping of the VAT Retail Export Scheme. 

“Despite this, I am immensely proud Walpole, with this comprehensive report, has demonstrated how critical the UK’s luxury sector is to our economic and cultural life, and more than that, that is one of the most vibrant and high-growth industries of the future.”