The Debrief: How Vacation Clothes Became Big Business
Listen now
Description
BoF’s Tamison O’Connor explains how the fashion industry is betting on resortwear as consumers return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles and travel rebounds.    Background:  Every spring, top fashion clients, influencers and insiders are whisked away to lush destinations like Monte Carlo and Capri to indulge in fabulous dinners and cocktail parties — and sneak a peek at brands’ resort collections. Resortwear, which began as a way for luxury houses to cater to wealthy, travelling clients halfway through the main season, now represents so much more as a meaningful driver of sales for retailers.  “It's really attractive for the true luxury customer who sees these items as a fun way to accessorise a holiday, but it's also an entry point for more aspirational and younger consumers,” said luxury correspondent Tamison O’Connor.     Key Insights:  As consumers start travelling and treating themselves again, luxury is betting big on vacation dressing.  Resortwear stands apart with more casual designs, lighter fabrics and lower prices. Brands aren’t just using these collections to attract travellers and true luxury consumers, but also to snag wealthy domestic clients and appeal to aspirational buyers. Retailers are picking up on opportunities to engage wealthy consumers by building buzz with events and activations surrounding resortwear online and in stores. Big brands are opening more stores and pop-up markets in vacation towns.  Luxury doesn’t expect growth in the segment to slow, even amid global economic turbulence, travel restrictions in China and skyrocketing inflation.   Additional Resources:  Luxury Seizes the Vacation Dressing Boom  Loewe's Brand Within a Brand: Is This the New Way to Do Diffusion?  How Fashion Is Targeting the Travel Rebound   Join BoF Professional today with our exclusive podcast listener discount of 25% off an annual membership, follow the link here and enter the coupon code ‘debrief’ at checkout.    Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.
More Episodes
Hello Lauren Sherman here, we are interrupting our regularly scheduled programming today to share some news. After ten years of writing for BoF I am moving on to pursue some new projects and that means, sadly, that I no longer be hosting the debrief. It's been an absolute pleasure recording this...
Published 01/25/23
Published 01/25/23
Occasionwear’s late-pandemic comeback may have felt like a reactionary fluke, but retailers and designers are betting it’s more than a trend.  Background:  Post-pandemic, occasionwear has been booming. During the second half of 2022 US and UK retailers introduced nearly twice as many dresses...
Published 01/18/23