French Fashion Industry Statistics

France requires brands to inform consumers about product repairability where applicable under the AGEC law [1]

France had a mandatory reporting obligation under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive starting with fiscal years from 2024 for large companies in scope, affecting fashion groups [2]

For foreign companies with subsidiaries in France, the French vigilance threshold is 10,000 employees worldwide including 5,000 in France [3]

France’s climate law (Loi relative à l’énergie et au climat / Loi Climat et Résilience) targets net-zero emissions by 2050 [4]

France set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 [5]

France’s “Indice de réparabilité” for certain products including appliances was mandated by a 2020 decree; textiles have repairability obligations indirectly through product information rules [6]

France’s minimum share of recycled fibers in textiles is governed under EU policy; the French transposition references the EU Plastics strategy thresholds [7]

The average lifespan of clothing in France increased by 2% between 2014 and 2019 [8]

The reuse rate for textile waste was about 10% in 2018 in France [9]

In 2017, France collected about 1.2 million items of used clothing through collection systems per day (average) [10]

By 2027, France targets an extension of extended producer responsibility (EPR) for textiles [11]

In 2022, the French “reparability” index for textiles (loi anti-gaspillage) was introduced with a minimum information requirement [12]

France’s “anti-waste law” targets reducing waste by 10% by 2025 relative to 2010 across textiles [13]

Fashion-related retail turnover in France exceeded €90 billion in 2018 (all apparel retail) [14]

In 2019, the average carbon footprint of clothing purchased in France was estimated at 8.8 kgCO2e per item [15]

In 2020, the average water footprint of a textile item purchased in France was estimated at 2,700 liters [16]

The EU’s REACH restrictions include specific azo dyes; the compliance coverage for imported textiles in France is based on customs controls under EU rules [17]

Luxury fashion houses’ revenue in France accounted for a large share of European luxury; in 2021 LVMH Fashion & Leather had €48.3 billion revenue [18]

€34.0 billion — France’s clothing & footwear exports by value (2023) [19]

€31.5 billion — France’s clothing & footwear imports by value (2023) [20]

In France, there are about 5,000 clothing establishments [21]

In 2023, value of sustainable-fashion collections marketed in France exceeded €3 billion [22]

In 2022, the share of people reporting buying at least one item of clothing online in the last 12 months was 23% [23]

In 2020, French households spent €798 per year on clothing on average [24]

France’s apparel and clothing industry represented 3.2% of total EU textile and clothing exports by value in 2021 [25]

The value of French textile and clothing imports in 2021 was €33.7 billion [26]