• Home
  • News
  • Business
  • US luxury denim market grows 9 percent year-on-year

US luxury denim market grows 9 percent year-on-year

By Angela Gonzalez-Rodriguez

loading...

Scroll down to read more

A recent research reveals that the luxury denim market grew in the US by 9 percent between November 2014 and January 2015, compared with the same period a year ago. On the contrary, mass consumption denim is losing its luster.

With around 150,000 denim products on the market, US consumers were increasingly turning to luxury and premium brands, which cost around 200-500 dollars a pair, over cheaper styles, retail technology company Editd said in its report.

Meanwhile, the report revealed that the mass market - with an average retail price of 69 dollars per pair of jeans - fell around 2 percent.

This trend was interestingly enough the contrary across the Pond, with denim brands catering for the average consumer flourishing, according to data gathered by Editd. Thus, in the UK, the luxury denim market declined by 24 percent between November 2014 and January 2015, while the discount market sky-rocketed, adding over 52 percent.

Likewise, tastes and trends do differ from one country to another, with US customers increasingly favouring the so-called "boyfriend" jeans, while high-rise skinny jeans are the most sought-after style in the UK.

Brand wise, Asos was ranked the largest "mass" and "value" retailer of denim in both the US and UK in Editd's report. Seven for All Mankind was named the most-stocked brand of jeans in the US, even if its parent company, VF Corporation, warned that falling sales of premium denim had hit revenue.

Actually, VF Corp. said earlier in February it wrote down the value of the once hot denim brand Seven For All Mankind along with two other contemporary lines by 396 million dollars.

“The niche brands have taken share from some of the more mainstream brands, and that is why Seven has suffered,” said back in the day Neil Saunders, managing director at Conlumino, a retail research and consulting firm.

The apparel group, which and also counts Wrangler and Lee brands in its denim portfolio, said there was "continuing challenging consumer trends" in premium denim, and wrote down the value of brand Seven For All Mankind, along with two other contemporary lines, by 396 million dollars.