Apparel market in Italy- statistics & facts

Italy is almost synonymous with fashion and style, thanks to the country's long history of producing high-quality apparel and fashion. Milan is considered to be one of the fashion capitals of the world and many of the most famous luxury clothing brands in the world come from the country.

Apparel manufacture in Italy

Together with a great number of wearing apparel manufacturers, which employed over 178 thousand people in 2019, two important sectors of the apparel manufacturing market are the knitting industry and the textile industry. In fact, the highest grossing apparel category in Italy is outerwear made of textiles other than knitted and leather clothes, which generated almost 20 billion euros in revenue in 2019. The overall turnover of the manufacture of wearing apparel in Italy was predicted to be over 27.2 billion euros in 2020, a decrease on the previous year.

International trade

These levels of apparel manufacturing enable Italy to have a net positive balance of clothing trade. The value of exports of clothing from Italy amounted to over 22 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, which was lower than in previous years. This drop was to be expected, as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic heavily impacted international trade. Considering the circumstances, a dip of 4.4 billion dollars is not disastrous. Italy exports most of its clothing to other European countries. Four of the top five destinations for textile and fashion goods from Italy in 2021 were located in Europe. France came in top spot, with 193 million euros of goods imported from Italy that year.

Luxury brands

Many of the most iconic brands in the world come from Italy, such as Gucci, Prada, and Versace, to name a few. Although, in 1999, Gucci was bought by the French group Kering, which also owns brands such as Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. Guccio Gucci founded the company in Florence in 1921. Now, Gucci is the most lucrative of all Kering's brands, generating 9.7 billion euros of revenue in the financial year 2021.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Oct 1, 2024

Key insights

Turnover of the manufacture of wearing apparel industry in Italy
27.2bn EUR
Revenue of the apparel market in Italy
49.25bn USD
Number of wearing apparel manufacturers in Italy
29,774
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