First Surpassing $11 Billion, 16% Increase
New Luxury Brands like ARMY and Maison Kitsun?
MZ Generation Prefers Overseas Brands
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-sun] Due to revenge consumption, imports of luxury and high-priced contemporary clothing reached an all-time high.
Clothing import value exceeded 11.1 billion dollars
According to the Korea Customs Service export-import trade statistics on the 17th, last year's clothing import value was recorded at $11.18264 billion, a 16.2% increase from the previous year. This is the largest scale ever, marking the first time imports surpassed $11 billion.
The value of clothing imports has steadily increased. After surpassing $5 billion in 2011, it exceeded $10 billion in seven years. Although it slowed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, clothing imports increased last year as consumption centered on high-priced products grew. Looking at the details, imports of fur clothing decreased, while imports of woven and knitted fabrics increased. By country, clothing imports from Italy and France grew by 38.0% and 28.4%, respectively, over two years.
The reason for the increase in clothing imports is the strong preference among the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) for overseas contemporary brands called new luxury, such as Ami, Maison Kitsun?, Thom Browne, Lemaire, Isabel Marant, Maison Margiela, and Acne Studios, over domestic brands.
In particular, the consumption share of men has increased. The proportion of male customers in total sales of the three major department stores rose from 27% in 2010 to 40% last year. The increase in male customers at department stores is centered on those in their 20s and 30s. The prices of these brands' products range from 200,000 to 500,000 KRW for T-shirts, 500,000 to 1,000,000 KRW for bottoms, 400,000 to 1,000,000 KRW for knits, and 700,000 to 2,000,000 KRW for jackets. In fact, popular products from these brands sold out as soon as they were stocked. Ami, for example, recorded a monthly growth rate close to 300%.
Fashion industry achieves record-high performance
Due to the popularity of overseas brands, domestic fashion companies are expected to achieve record-high performance last year. The securities industry forecasts that Samsung C&T Fashion Division will achieve sales of 1.75 trillion KRW and operating profit of 100 billion KRW this year, marking the highest performance ever. Samsung C&T Fashion Division's sales reached 1.2408 trillion KRW by the third quarter this year, a 15.4% increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit turned positive at 80.7 billion KRW. Samsung C&T Fashion imports and distributes most brands popular among young people, such as Ami, Thom Browne, Maison Kitsun?, and Lemaire. LF, which imports brands like Isabel Marant, is expected to see consolidated sales of 1.75 trillion KRW this year, an 8% increase from the previous year. Operating profit is expected to surge from 77.1 billion KRW to 147 billion KRW.
People who could not travel abroad also turned to overseas direct purchases. With the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of non-face-to-face transactions, the number of people using overseas direct purchase exceeded 13 million. According to the '2021 E-commerce Import Status' announced by the Korea Customs Service, the number of overseas direct purchase users from January to November this year was 13.076 million.
Those in their 20s and 30s accounted for nearly half (45.2%) of the total. The import value increased by 25.7% to $4.153 billion, and the number of e-commerce transactions also rose by 40.6%. By item, clothing import value (17.7%) was the second highest after health food imports (19.4%).
A fashion industry official explained, "As more people seek overseas clothing brand products, department stores are expanding related brand zones," adding, "Companies will strengthen the incubating function of select shops to increase the proportion of overseas business."
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