Luxury fashion retail: who sells luxury and how, per the Bain-Altagamma 2025 study

Luxury fashion retail runs through three doors: the houses' own boutiques and websites, multi-brand platforms such as department stores and online luxury retailers, and a growing outlet and secondhand fringe. The latest Bain-Altagamma study, released in November 2025, says the physical full-price door weakened again in 2025 while outlets and secondhand grew. Here is who sells luxury fashion and how, with every figure dated and attributed to its source.

The size of the market, as an estimate

Bain & Company and Fondazione Altagamma, the trade association of Italian luxury goods manufacturers, estimate in the 24th edition of their annual study that overall luxury spending totaled 1.44 trillion euros worldwide in 2025, a marginal decline of 1% to 3% from 2024 at current exchange rates. The personal luxury goods segment, which is the part that includes clothing, leather goods, shoes, watches, jewelry, eyewear and beauty, is forecast at 358 billion euros for 2025, down from 364 billion in 2024. At constant exchange rates Bain calls that flat. These are consultants' estimates, and Bain labels the 2025 figure a forecast.

The consumer base shrank. Bain says the industry lost about 20 million consumers compared with 2024, as shoppers bought less often, traded down, or moved spending to experiences and preowned luxury.

Door one: the house's own stores and site

The most tightly controlled model is the one Hermès describes. In its 2025 full-year results, released February 12, 2026, the house reported revenue above 16 billion euros, up 9% at constant exchange rates. Executive Chairman Axel Dumas said: "The Hermès model based on an exclusive and qualitative network, as well as strong vertical integration, has once again proven successful." The release also says the distribution network continued its "qualitative expansion," with store openings and extensions.

That is a house controlling who sells its product, at what price, and in what setting. Not every brand can copy it. Hermès is a single company with a very high operating margin; the release puts recurring operating income at 41% of sales.

Door two: multi-brand platforms

Multi-brand retailers carry many houses under one roof, physical or online. Bain's distribution finding is the least flattering part of its study: it says online sales held stable overall, with brand-operated online stores showing "encouraging traction" among aspirational clients, helped by AI-enhanced user experience and personalization, while multibrand platforms "continued to struggle, with a few exceptions." Bain does not name the exceptions in the section we read.

So the picture is a squeeze. The houses want the customer relationship and the margin, and the platforms are left with the less-controlled share. For who owns which house, see our guides to Italian luxury houses and their owners and French luxury houses and their owners.

Door three: outlets and secondhand

Bain reports that every physical format except outlets weakened in 2025, driven by slowing footfall, while outlets remained in growth mode as consumers sought value. Secondhand luxury goods sales grew to an estimated 50 billion euros, up 4% to 6%, outpacing sales of new luxury goods, according to the study.

For readers, this is the quiet shift. The resale door is no longer a side business, and it sets a price ceiling for the new product sitting next to it.

What sells, and who is buying

Bain says brand performance was polarized: 40% to 45% of brands reported positive revenue growth in 2025, versus 95% in 2022 and 65% in 2023. Accessible luxury was the most dynamic segment, with about 50% of brands likely to have grown, against roughly 25% in aspirational luxury and 35% in absolute luxury. Specialists outperformed generalists, and roughly half of the largest groups, those with revenues above 5 billion euros, saw revenues decline.

By category, jewelry was the standout, and eyewear held momentum. Bain says apparel held steady, especially among top customers, and that leather goods and footwear "continued to contract sharply," reflecting price sensitivity among aspirational consumers and a perceived lack of creative renewal. Brands responded, Bain notes, with capsule collections, limited drops and newness-focused storytelling.

The profit squeeze

Bain says operating margins fell to between 15% and 16%, down from 21% in 2022, which it equates to the industry losing 20% of its total profit compared with 2023. It lists inflation, tariffs, markdowns and higher operating costs as the causes, together with top-line softness.

That context is why creative-director changes and store-network pruning keep appearing in the news. A house with falling margins and a shrinking customer base has two levers: product and the stores that show it.

How to read luxury retail claims

Treat two kinds of claim carefully. "Record sales" at a house should be compared with the base, since Bain says the market as a whole is flat to down. And "exclusive distribution" is a strategy a company chooses and then reports on itself, as Hermès does above, not an independent quality mark.

For a shopper, the practical effect is price and choice. Outlets and secondhand offer discounts on the same labels, and boutiques offer the full range at the full price. Compare the item's retail price on the house's own page with any outlet or resale listing, and check dates, since both move.

Our take

Luxury retail is consolidating around the house's own door. The data we opened shows the full-price physical store, the multi-brand platform and the aspirational customer all under pressure, while outlets, secondhand and accessible luxury gain. We would watch the October 22 reports from Hermès and Kering for the next read, and skip any claim that the sector has fully recovered until the numbers say so.