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Fast Fashion Polarises Mid-Market Jeans Specialists in the UK

By FashionUnited

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Fashion

An appetite for fast fashion and an ever increasing speed of trend cycles has seen the jeans market in the UK diversify over the last decade in terms of brands, mixed materials and popularity of styles. In 2014, total jeans sales in the UK reached 2.2 billion pounds with the top 20 brands accounting for a value share of 44 percent and 71 percent of the top 20 representing fast fashion retailers. Subsequently, denim specialist brands have witnessed a gradual decline in brand share and are at risk of becoming an increasing minority of the high street denim market.

Source: Euromonitor International

This has been great news for high street retailers, flourishing in high volume and a fast turnover of stock. Brands such as Asos, Next and New Look have utilised the opportunity to capitalise on the UK’s enthusiasm for cheap, trend-led jeans, gaining a healthy value share of the market in return. Competition for brand share in jeans has intensified as UK millennial consumers have become increasingly fickle with their denim purchases. Whether super skinny, high waisted, boyfriend, ankle grazing or distressed, the defined look of the moment has fuelled a desire for fast fashion gratification, forgoing denim quality and brand loyalty in jeans.

While many super-premium brands, such as True Religion and Armani, continue to perform well, it is clear that the market is becoming increasingly polarised with super premium and super value dividing purchases. The mid-market once treasured staple pair of great fitting jeans has been replaced by a cheap and cheerful wardrobe of multiple trend-led varieties, leaving mid-market denim brands such as Levi’s and Lee (VF Corp) struggling to compete with fast fashion brands.

On top of this, the athleisure trend for leggings and yoga or exercise pants has enticed some UK consumers away from jeans as the go-to trouser choice for casualwear. Between 2010-2014 leggings recorded a 4 percent value CAGR compared to a CAGR of 2 percent for standard jeans, creating an even denser playing field for jeans specialists.

Is there a new opportunity on the horizon for denim?

In 2015, we are beginning to see signs of the UK apparel and footwear market descending the peak of fast fashion. Marks & Spencer Plc. and New Look Retailers Ltd both saw a decline in their jeans sales in 2013 and 2014. As traditional vintage styles and blue denim make a comeback in mainstream fashion, specialist denim brands are looking to use this combined opportunity to reclaim lost ground.

Looking forward, specialist brands are aware that they need to provide consumers with more than good quality jeans and are responding to competition from fast fashion in a number of ways. Levi is combatting fad jeans styles by promoting the timelessness and longevity of its jeans, tapping into a growing preoccupation with more sustainable eco fashion. The company’s claim that a pair of Levi’s will endure the test of time, remaining classically stylish and fully intact for a decade, is hope that UK consumers will alter their focus back to sustainable denim as an investment.

Another disenchanted denim brand Gap, have responded by expanding their range of denim styles. Moving away from standard classic cuts they have taken to offering a wider variety of styles as to be more fashion-led, pairing quality with a choice of trends. Finally, denim brands are looking to compete with leggings by incorporating new materials into their jeans, with a focus on super stretchy denim and sculpting and shaping technology. Levi’s, Lee and a host of other brands are hoping to take full advantage of super stretch jeans over the forecast period.

Finding the middle ground

Despite growing ethical concerns, a decade’s influx of rapidly changing trends and affordable high volume jeans makes it seem unlikely that demand for multiple styles, cuts and colours will fade or translate into the end of fast fashion’s reign. Denim specialist brands offering a wider selection of jeans styles may entice some consumers to focus on quality, however the average UK consumer will still need to be value conscious and affordability will be the defining line when buying into a current and potentially short lived trend.

While traditional denim specialists will continue to fight back against fast fashion it will be interesting to observe the fate of new entrants to the UK denim market. America Eagle Outfitters, who launched in the UK in late 2014, may be well positioned to bridge the gap between trend-led fashion jeans and denim specialists, perhaps creating a middle ground for consumers’ denim purchases. In the forecast period we expect to see UK consumers looking for the best of both worlds – affordable styles from a strong denim-focused brand.

By Karla Rendle, Research Analyst at Euromonitor International


Euromonitor
Fast fashion
Jeans