The men's ready-to-wear market - Italy

1.1 Definition and presentation

The French term 'prêt-à-porter' refers to the clothing industry, which, in contrast to tailor-made clothes, usually made to measure, produces standard clothes in predefined sizes. Today, most fashion companies, except for luxury brands, only produce 'prêt-à-porter' models. This different way of production compared to tailoring has decreased the quality of the product but at the same time shortened the production period. This study will focus on the men's 'prêt-à-porter' market. 

Globally, the market is estimated to be worth around €451 billion (2020 figures) and growth until the year 2027 is forecasted at a CAGR of 2.9%. This positive market forecast is because emerging countries are also having more and more purchasing power and men's fashion, compared to women's fashion which is now saturated, still has market segments that can be successfully penetrated.

In Italy, this market is growing strongly compared to previous years. It has been calculated that men spend more on clothing than women. Specifically, in 2018 it was estimated that men spent a total of 17 billion euros, while women's spending stopped at 15 billion euros. 

The market trend for the coming years is to focus, in the men's sector, on a more ephemeral and transitory idea of fashion. 'Prêt-à-porter' companies will have an incentive to produce more and more collections with less and less time between them. Recently, a symbol of this type of market is the "Pop Up" shop, i.e. a temporary shop for a few months often used by these fashion companies as a sales channel. Furthermore, in the clothing market, sustainability has become a key issue in recent years, which is why there are more and more 'prêt-à-porter' second-hand shops or online resale sites.