Paris fashion week brings kudos and profit to France

With Paris fashion week officially over, the French Fashion Institute, IFM, have released some interesting figures. To start, fashion brings in more revenue than France's automotive and aeronautic industries combined.

It seems it is not just the kudos of Paris hosting the world's most important fashion week, but rather the economics its brings to its country and the significance it commands in the global fashion industry.

"This industry is very much under-estimated by public authorities," said Ralph Toledano, head of fashion brands Nina Ricci and Jean-Paul Gaultier and chairman of the French Federation of couture, ready-to-wear and fashion designers.

People talk about Chanel and YSL

"The French are not very conscious of the weight the country's lifestyle industries represents. Abroad, I can assure you that people do not talk about Airbus but rather about Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent."

The French Federation of couture, ready-to-wear and fashion designers presented the study together with France's ready-to-wear federation.

According to Reuters, the study said fashion-related businesses employed directly at least 580,000 people in France and more than 1 million people when taking into account ancilliary jobs such as communications, modeling and marketing.

Paris' fashion weeks, which include bi-annual women's and men's ready-to-wear and haute couture, generate 102 billion euros in revenue from visitors who stay in the city’s hotels, use its restaurants, taxis and other services and spend in its stores. Throughout the year there are over 300 catwalk shows, of which 50 percent are foreign brands on its official calendar.

In terms of numbers, French fashion is worth 150 billion euros in direct sales, of which 33 billion euros are exported around the world. The industry is a major economic hub to France, and contributes to 2.7 percent of the country's total GDP. In a wider context, fashion businesses of French companies and French-owned foreign companies, generate 70 billion euros turnover.

The IFM cites the success of the French fashion industry as an "unparalleled ecosystem that unites creation, technical and industrial know-how, digital and management of the value chain."

Photo credit:Chanel SS17, source: Chanel Facebook, IFM presentation, source: Mode a Paris