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Despite a raft of attractive, buzzy brands beginning sales processes, many of beauty’s big conglomerates didn’t open their wallets this year.

From the luxury slowdown to shifting consumer tastes and unprecedented demographic shifts, The State of Fashion 2025 explores the biggest challenges and opportunities the industry will face in the coming year.

LVMH-owned Dior missed glaring problems during an assessment of working and safety conditions in its production arm in Italy last year, according to a review of unpublished court documents.

Even as wellness fads come and go, the year 2024 revealed a few salient shifts in the industry, including a growing focus on longevity, widespread adoption of GLP-1 agonist medicines and a burgeoning men’s market that points to longer-term evolution.

This year, marketing efforts for everything from skincare to fragrance targeted new cohorts — Gen Alpha, male athletes, pet owners, “MomTok” — and across more channels than ever.

The luxury industry was under pressure in 2024 as customers pulled back on high-end purchases. Brands from Chanel to Valentino to Fendi changed their creative lineups, hoping to jump-start demand. But the struggles at Gucci and Burberry show how tricky executing a designer relaunch can be.

In a year defined by election-year upheaval, muted advocacy, the rapid dissolution of diversity programmes, and ongoing AI disruption, settling on hybrid work arrangements was one of the few areas where fashion firms found stability.

Tweens went shopping in 2024, but so did just about everybody else. Massive gains in online sales were still dwarfed by in-store purchases, especially at specialty retailers, and foot traffic is expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels next year.