How fashion fuels the UK economy

Economic Value - official statistics

In the Government's official statistics on the creative industries, published in 2020, by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the economic contribution of the fashion industry is partly accounted for in the category of "design and designer fashion".

Using the official statisticians' methodology, there were an estimated 171,000 UK jobs in design and designer fashion in 2019.

Judged by Gross Value Added (GVA), the design and designer fashion category, generated an estimated GVA of £3.5bn in 2019. This measure grew by 4.9 per cent year on year, and had increased by 103.9 per cent between 2010 and 2019.

There were also an estimated 23,400 UK businesses in the category in 2017, increasing by almost 3 per cent year on year.

Source: DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates, Employment, April 2020; DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates, GVA, December 2020

Source: Creative Industries Economic Estimates - Business Demographics, DCMS, January 2019.

Exports of Services

According to data published by the DCMS, exports of services from the design and designer fashion category were worth £486.3m in 2018 (Note: These figures do not include desginer fashion goods, and the figures for services are likely to under-estimate the value of fashion service exports in this category and conflict with other estimates of the value of exports from UK design and fashion businesses).

Source: DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates, Trade, DCMS, February 2020

Value of Fashion

The direct contribution of the UK fashion industry - including fashion suppliers and retailers as well as designers - to the UK economy was estimated at £32.3bn in 2017 according to data from Oxford Economics, the consultancy, published by the British Fashion Council. The source estimates that fashion supports 890,000 jobs - up 1.8 per cent on 2016.

Womenswear value sales grew by 2.9 per cent in 2017 to £28.1bn, are predicted to reach £28.7bn by 2021, according to Mintel. Menswear accounts for 26 per cent of the total clothing market and grew by 3.5 per cent in 2017.

According to a 2017 Mintel report, online fashion accounts for 24 per cent of total fashion spend.

Chinese tourists collectively are the biggest spenders in the UK luxury fashion market.

Source: BFC release, September 2018.

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