French exports in women’s ready-to-wear broke their six-year growth run in 2016, with total exports of 3.06 billion euros, or $3.26 billion, representing a 0.8 percent fall.
Domestic consumption also fell 2.6 percent to total 10.4 billion euros, or $11.06 billion at average exchange, according to data released Wednesday by the French Women’s Ready-to-Wear Federation.
“We don’t feel great about these figures,” the organization’s president Pierre-François Le Louët said in a meeting with journalists Wednesday. After a year of flat consumption in women’s clothing in 2015, the organization had predicted a 1.6 percent increase for 2016 at the same time last year.
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Exports have been a lone bright spot for many French apparel firms since the mid-Aughts, as stagnating incomes and a rising cost of living in other categories have caused the domestic market for fashion to progressively erode.
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The federation cited strikes and rainy weather in spring, mild temperatures in autumn and terrorist attacks as potential explanations for the decrease in domestic sales.
Falling exports could be seen as a sort of “correction” after years of particularly rapid growth in some markets, according to the federation’s managing director François-Marie Grau.
Women’s clothing exports to South Korea were down 11.4 percent, for example, after jumping 44 percent in 2015. China saw a 2.9 percent drop on the heels of a 34 percent increase the year prior. Exports to the U.S. fell 2.4 percent after having posted 6 years of consecutive growth.
The weak results could suggest that the revolving door for designers and chief executive officers will continue to spin in 2017: impatience with faltering rtw sales has been cited as a frequent cause for the flurry of recent executive and designer changes.
Carven, Lanvin, and Balenciaga are just a few of France’s high-end houses to see the creative director or ceo replaced in the past year, and mass-market brands are hardly more stable. 2016 saw the debt-distressed shoes and apparel group Vivarte, one of France’s biggest, oust its ceo Stéphane Maquaire after only a six-month tenure.
Big gains in several European markets were a bright point in the year’s results. Exports to Spain jumped 17.3 percent while Italy saw 11.4 percent increase. The collapse in value of the pound during 2016 wasn’t enough to undo gains across the Channel; exports to the U.K. rose 9.8 percent.
The Federation also shared data on which product categories had seen French women spending more or less money. Outerwear was up, with overcoats and rain jackets seeing a 13.3 increase by volume, while sales of puffer coats and short jackets rose 14.7 percent. Pantsuits made a comeback with sales up 3.9 percent, but skirts “failed to break in” — falling as much as 19.3 percent.
French women continued to shift to e-commerce, with 17.4 percent of purchases carried out online compared to 16.5 percent in 2015.
Federation president Le Louët pointed to the rising importance of “click-and-mortar” purchases — meaning that more consumers are trying on garments in stores and then ordering online. “The way French people shop has continued to change considerably,” he said.
Reasons to hope for improvement in 2017 include falling unemployment, a weak euro that could boost exports and faster global growth, according to managing director Grau. He nonetheless cautioned “prudence” for the year ahead — declining to quantify his predictions.