When people talk about the fashion industry as a teeny-tiny, insular world, they aren’t being glib. Although fashion plays a major role on the world stage, both culturally and financially (last year, luxury sales reportedly exceeded $318 billion worldwide), just a handful of companies dominate the industry. Although a select number of high-end labels (like Chanel) are privately owned and some others (like Michael Kors) are publicly traded, more and more of the world’s best known brands belong to major conglomerates, like LVMH (which is doing its best to acquire remaining holdouts, like Hermès).
In the graphic above, you can see how just six large companies control over forty of the world’s top luxury fashion brands. To see an expanded version, click here.
[Created based on a table in Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion by Tansy E. Hoskins]
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