Prices are rising across the fashion industry – with jackets and outerwear seeing the steepest year-over-year increases, according to a new report from consulting firm AlixPartners published Wednesday.
The firm analyzed how much prices have climbed between 2024 and 2025 across nine categories, from swimsuits to dresses. Prices in all of the categories it tracked have risen by an average of $17 year-over-year.
Jackets and outerwear saw the largest increase, with prices on average 24% higher, while swimwear saw the smallest hike at 2% on average.
As the U.S. starts to cool down and winter approaches, consumers looking for new coats and jackets could be spending a lot more at the register – if they choose to buy. One factor that’s weighed on the category is a late start to fall, which typically leads to weak demand for outerwear. Coupled with higher prices, retailers that bet big on outerwear in the fall and winter months might have a harder time moving product, which could lead to inventory challenges in the spring, said Sonia Lapinsky, the head of AlixPartners’ global fashion practice and the report’s author.
″[Retailers] have a normal discounting cadence that says by late November, early December, you’re already starting to put this stuff on sale, on discount, and a consumer may not have even thought about it by then,” said Lapinsky.
