Weekend Briefing: Trade disputes and reduced spending hit luxury hard last week

Last week, a series of sales drops, regulatory decisions and trade disagreements hampered the plans of several companies across the luxury industry. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Glossy Podcast for interviews with fashion industry leaders and Week in Review episodes, and the Glossy Beauty Podcast for interviews from the beauty industry. –Danny Parisi, sr. fashion reporter

Luxury’s difficult week

The struggles in the global luxury market continued last week. In the U.S. and the rest of the world, luxury companies reported being stymied by lowered sales, reduced demand in important markets, and the possibilities of regulation and legislation that would put a damper on their plans.

In luxury watches, exports of Swiss watches to the rest of the world dropped a precipitous 16% in March, the biggest drop since the beginning of the pandemic. That falloff was primarily driven by reduced demand in China, where sales fell 42% last month. Exports to Hong Kong, one of the biggest watch markets in the world, fell even more, by 44%.

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