The Dresses and Skirts market is worth approximately €10.8 billion in Europe, and it is split between Dresses, which accounts for up to 86% of the value, and Skirts, which covers the remaining 14%. The market is growing at an average rate of 5% each year.

The European Dresses and Skirts market follows the general apparel trends related to sustainability, technological innovation and increased emphasis on corporate and social responsibility. For more information, see the CBI study on Trends in the Apparel market. Aside from these general trends, the Dresses and Skirts market has its own segment-specific trends: changes in the types of Dresses and Skirts and wedding dresses are driving the market.

1. Product description

Dresses and Skirts are clothing, which is worn predominately by women and girls during the day, at home as well as at work. The category consists of Dresses and Skirts of different fabrics/textiles.

The skirt sub-subsegment includes divided and non-divided skirts knitted and crocheted, of wool or fine animal hair, cotton, synthetic fibers, other textile materials and excluding petticoats (HS Codes: 61045100, 61045200, 61045300, 61045900, 62045100, 62045200, 62045300, 62045910)

The dress sub-segment includes knitted and crocheted dresses, of wool or fine animal hair, cotton, synthetic fibers and other textile materials and excluding petticoats (HS Codes: 61044100, 61044200, 61044300, 61044400, 61044900, 62044100, 62044200, 62044300, 62044400, 62044900). 

2. What makes Europe an interesting market for Dresses and Skirts?

Europe is one of the more significant importers of Dresses and Skirts in the world. In 2021, the value of Dresses and Skirts imports to Europe accounted for €10.8 billion, up from €8.5 billion in 2016. This corresponded to roughly 1 billion units of Dresses and Skirts clothing in 2021 (down from 1.1 billion in 2016). During the last five years, the value of the European Union’s Dresses and Skirts imports has been growing on average by 5% annually. It is expected that in the years to come, the demand for Dresses and Skirts will continue to grow at a similar rate.

The European Union is also a large re-exporter of Dresses and Skirts. In 2021, it exported €8.7 billion worth of Dresses and Skirts apparel (up from € 6.7 billion in 2016). EU Dresses and Skirts exports have been growing at an average yearly rate of 5.2% between 2016 and 2021. The biggest EU exporters in 2021 were Germany (€1.6 billion), Spain (€1.4 billion), Italy (€1.4 billion), Poland (€984 million), the Netherlands (€776 million), and France (€750 million). Together, these six countries represent over 79.2% of the EU’s Dresses and Skirts apparel exports. The Netherlands, Poland and Germany have seen the strongest export growth within this group, with an average yearly increase between 11.9% and 16.1%. In comparison, Italy has experienced recent losses of -0.7% annually.

Currently, 45.6% of European Dresses and Skirts imports originate in Extra-EU countries and 54.4% originate in Intra-European Union countries. In 2021, suppliers from developing countries contributed 41.9% to all Dresses and Skirts imports into the European Union in terms of value (down from 45% in 2016) and suppliers from the rest of the world accounted for 3.8% of the import value (down from 7.8% in 2016). The value of European Union Dresses and Skirts imports originating from developing countries corresponded to €4.5 billion in 2021 and has grown at an average yearly rate of 3.4% since 2016. This demonstrates that there is a strong demand for Dresses and Skirts from developing countries.

Europe’s extra-EU Dresses and Skirts imports are dominated by China, Turkey and Bangladesh. Together, these three countries account for 27.5% of all Dresses and Skirts imports into the European Union. China is the single largest Dresses and Skirts exporter to the EU with 15.3% of the EU imports value in 2021. It is followed by Turkey with 7.1% and Bangladesh with 5.1%. Other Extra-EU Dresses and Skirts exporters have market shares of less than 5% of the overall Dresses and Skirts import value. Bangladesh (+1.1%) and Myanmar (+0.3%) increased their share of Dresses and Skirts imports over the last five years. Likewise, Bangladesh’s imports reached €548 million (in comparison to €333 million in 2016), while the average extra-European Union countries experienced an average annual growth of 1.9% during the same period.

The Intra-European Union Dresses and Skirts trade is dominated by Germany, Poland, and Spain. 31.3% of the total Intra-EU Dresses and Skirts imports originate in these three markets. They are followed by Italy with 5.7%, the Netherlands with 4.1% and France with 3.0%. All countries except Italy and France have increased their market shares over the last 5 years.

3. Which European countries offer most opportunities for Dresses and Skirts?

Western European markets are much larger and better developed than Central and Eastern European markets in terms of supply chain organisation and quality control. The top Dresses and Skirts import markets in the EU are Germany, France, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands and Italy. These top six countries together account for 72.5% of Dresses and Skirts imports in the EU and have been growing at an average rate of 4.5% per year in the last five years.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is the fifth-largest import market for Dresses and Skirts in Europe. In 2021, the value of its Dresses and Skirts imports amounted to €998 million (up from €887 million in 2016). This corresponded to approximately 88 million units of clothing. In the last five years, Dutch Dresses and Skirts imports have grown by 2.4% in value and decreased by 8.4% in volume. During the same time period, the value of imports from developing countries decreased by an average of 3.2% per year. Dresses and Skirts from developing countries currently constitute 47.3% of the Netherlands’ overall Dresses and Skirts imports.

Dresses constitute 84% of Dresses and Skirts imports in the Netherlands (down from 80% in 2016) and grew by an annual average of 3.3% between 2016 and 2021. This is higher than the Skirts segment which saw a decrease of 1.7% during this time frame. Dresses unit prices are higher than Skirts unit prices (€11.80/unit for dresses against 9.70€/unit for skirts). Both Dresses and Skirts have undergone a weak but positive price development between 2016 and 2021 of €5.19 and €3.44 respectively.

The main Dresses and Skirts brands in the Netherlands include C&A, Anna Van Toor, Sandwich, and Fabienne Chapot.

Read the full... https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/apparel/dresses-and-skirts/market-potential