A 2022 ended “beyond expectations” with the turnover of fashion and related sectors exceeding 96.6 billion euros, up 16% compared to 2021. The highest in the last 20 years. And a 2023 marked by the most total uncertainty, so much so as to make it “impossible to make predictions”. To describe this double track along which made in Italy fashion moves is Carlo Capasa, president of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, who yesterday in Milan presented the new edition of Milan fashion week Men’s collection, scheduled from 13 to 17 January 2023 with 72 appointments of which 52 between fashion shows and physical presentations, 11 events and 4 digital contents.
January men’s fashion week – in full synergy with Pitti, in Florence from 10 to 13 January – will be a true test bench for the sector: buyers, in fact, will place orders for the 2023/24 winter season which could already feel the effects of the recession in Europe and the USA and a different level of consumer confidence from the current one.
Meanwhile, the 2022 data turned out to be more positive than expected: the fashion sector also held up in the third quarter, posting a +19% in turnover and leading the CNMI to revise its estimates upwards. «We had talked about a 12% growth over 2021, while today we can confirm that the increase in turnover, even if we estimate zero growth in the fourth quarter, will be +16%. That increase also discounts about 9% inflation on our products, so it’s somewhat mitigated by that figure. But it is a positive sign that closes a year in which there have been dramatic events», explained Capasa.
One of the positive data concerns the value of production which, net of inflation, rose by 9 per cent. On the other hand, the growth in energy and raw material costs had a significant impact (+9.2% in the first ten months of 2022, on an annual basis) on industrial prices along the supply chain, without however “unloading” equally on the pieces consumption, which in fashion have risen by an average of 3 per cent. Precisely the issue of industry costs – which so far, evidently, the upstream companies have tried to manage without weighing on consumers – is one of the unknowns the sector has to deal with, with the risk of losing competitiveness and not being able to meet growing international demand.
In 2022, exports exceeded 80 billion euros (+19%) and there was also a growth in imports (+27.8%, with a boom from China and more generally from Asia) and a trade surplus of more than 28 billion euros. The USA is confirmed as the most dynamic market in terms of exports with a +54.1% achieved between January and September in the fashion industry alone and a +23.5% in the same period in related sectors. The stars and stripes is the first destination market for cosmetics, eyewear, jewelery and bijoux with almost 2.7 billion in exports in value. Among the top ten customers of made in Italy fashion there are France (first market in value, +23.8%), Germany (+16%) and China (+18.8%) with positive performances also from Korea (+33 %) and Japan (+18.4%). In connected sectors, boom in Switzerland, hub of luxury groups (+31.7%), the Emirates (+30.7%) and Turkey (+57.6%). The latter two markets have become shopping destinations for Russians.