Five years ago, Emma, a 38-year-old Londoner who works as a marketing director, bought a piece of designer fashion about once a quarter. A pair of Prada shoes here or a Chloé blouse there, along with timeless pieces like a Burberry trench or a Louis Vuitton Neverfull bag when she got an occasional bonus.
Emma used to be what the retail industry refers to as an “aspirational consumer”; a member of the professional middle class who had sufficient disposable income to spend on luxury fashion when funds allowed, regarding her purchases as “investment pieces”.
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In 2026, those purchases seem like a distant memory. “I’d never buy designer new anymore,” she tells me. “I only ever buy secondhand or resale from sites like Vestiaire, or buy pieces at auction. Now, my more considered investment buys are from places like Toteme, or the higher end of the high street like Sézane, or even Cos.”
Emma’s shifting shopping behaviour seems to serve as a microcosm of what’s going on in the industry at large. This month, reports emerged that luxury bellwether LVMH, the French multinational behind labels including Dior and Louis Vuitton, has seen a dramatic fall in pandemic-era share price gains.
According to the Financial Times, LVMH’s market capitalisation has more than halved to €213 billion from its 2023 peak. The “squeezed middle” of former aspirational consumers like Emma is thought to be a factor in this decline, as well as other issues including tariffs, China’s economic slowdown and geopolitical turmoil.
“LVMH’s roughly 30 per cent share price decline this year reflects more than a China slowdown, it points to a customer base that was more financially stretched than headline income figures suggested,” says Nora Kleinewillinghoefer, global lead for fashion and luxury at management consultancy Kearney.
“A meaningful share of luxury’s growth [between 2019 and 2023] came from high earners who look secure on paper but are carrying real exposure to rate rises, job security and the stock market. When that pressure builds, discretionary spend like luxury fashion is often the first thing to give. A large part of the aspirational customer base was never as insulated as their income implied, and that’s now showing up clearly in the numbers.”
LVMH’s share price fall comes in spite of the fact that its fashion and leather goods sales returned to organic growth in the second quarter of 2026, with sales rising one per cent excluding currency shifts. Industry-shaping moves like Jonathan Anderson’s appointment as creative director of Dior have evidently paid off among the comfortable spenders.
The fashion industry’s historic year of designer reboots and reshuffles, which included 15 creative director debuts across the spring/summer 2026 shows, reignited interest across the board. Chanel looks to have outpaced rivals with sales growth in the house’s fashion division reportedly as high as 16 per cent in the first half of 2026.
But the squeezed middle still probably dropped off long before checkout. Were they there in the grip of Matthieu Mania when Blazy’s first collection for Chanel hit stores? Probably. Were they shelling out more than £10,000 for one of his takes on the classic Chanel 2.55 bag? Gorgeous as it is, of course they weren’t.
The problem for less affluent consumers is that luxury enjoyed a prolonged chapter of growth between 2019 and 2023. Shoppers had more disposable income, and the Chinese domestic market was undergoing explosive growth; according to McKinsey’s 2025 State of Luxury Fashion report, the “personal luxury goods industry” (meaning leather goods, watches and jewellery as well as clothing) grew five per cent per year between 2019 and 2023 — two percentage points above GDP growth. Brands raised their prices a reported four per cent per year on average during this fruitful time, propelling growth.
“The luxury sector has spent several years raising prices on the assumption that its customer base sat comfortably at the top of the income scale,” says Kleinewillinghoefer. “The data suggests that’s only partly true; many of those buyers were financially stretched rather than secure, which helps explain why demand has cooled faster than expected.”
Hiked-up prices, combined with wider macroeconomic issues, are sending aspirational consumers elsewhere. Namely, they’re sending them to the resale fashion market, which is reshaping the retail industry through platforms such as Vinted, eBay, Depop and Vestiaire Collective. According to data from Barclays, new clothing and accessories are the most commonly cut discretionary spend among UK shoppers. Fifty-five per cent of cost-conscious consumers have been actively avoiding new purchases since 2023.
“There is a big difference between someone who can comfortably spend £5,000 on a designer bag and someone who can afford it but has started asking themselves whether they actually want to,” says Hanushka Toni, founder and chief executive of designer resale platform, Sellier. “That’s where the pressure is coming from. The wealthiest clients still have the appetite and the means to spend, but the customer in the middle has more reason to pause, compare and look elsewhere.
“I don’t think aspirational shoppers have necessarily given up or fallen out of love with luxury — they’re just becoming much more considered about where they spend,” Toni continues. “Customers are increasingly turning to resale, vintage and pre-owned, where their money can go much further.”
It’s telling that even high-end retailers like Selfridges now have their own resale or “pre-loved” offerings and that a growing number of vintage-heads are scouring fashion auctions for sought-after eras and pieces. They are drawn in not only by lower prices and sustainable credentials, but also by the fact that pre-loved represents a specific cachet among the fashion-savvy.
“The wealthiest clients still have the means to spend, but the customer in the middle has more reason to pause”
Hanushka Toni, founder of Sellier
“Some of the most interesting demand we see is for pieces that aren’t available in boutiques anymore,” says Toni. “Resale gives people access to a much broader history of a brand. That’s becoming increasingly valuable to consumers looking for older, rarer or discontinued pieces that you’re less likely to see everyone else carrying.” Why shell out thousands on a brand-new designer piece when you could score Tom Ford-era Gucci for significantly less — plus all the style kudos that comes with it.
Then there’s the fact that, increasingly, high street brands are delivering a designer experience — and not just because of inflated prices. You only have to consider the fact that M&S will make its debut on the London Fashion Week schedule this September to see the mounting evidence for this. It’s a situation that would have been unimaginable a few years ago, as is the fact that M&S is riding high financially, having returned to profit growth after last year’s cyber incident disrupted sales. Meanwhile, H&M-owned & Other Stories announced the arrival of chief creative officer Jonathan Saunders in 2025 in a move that felt akin to a high fashion house.
The proof is in the pudding — & Other Stories has never felt so design-forward, covetable and, yes, costly. But its highest-ticket new season items (say a £299 unstructured braided leather bag) could feasibly be a birthday present or treat-to-self after a particularly lean month for the squeezed middle shopper. We still have to get our fashion kicks somewhere.
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