Role of Handbag Industry in

World of Fashion

Since the beginning of life men and women both are keen to look

special, thus no one can conclude when fashion came into existence.

But we can easily notice the enhancement of this industry with time.

There was a time when fashion industry limited to appeals only.

Accessories were used just as add-ons no one pays much attention to

them, at least from manufacturing point of view. With time the

enhancement of fashion industry people start thinking beyond

apparels, in this era, fashion starts from your cap and ends at your

footwear. With time fashion went beyond limits, now it’s not just about

clothes, it comprises everything you are carrying.

Clothes, accessories, footwear, jewelry and handbags are a major part

of today’s fashion industry. There are a few additional parts like

makeup, hairstyle etc. which are not considered as a part of fashion

industry. Usually we find only few major parts everywhere, or we can

say people concentrate more on clothes, footwear and jewelry. It’s

difficult to find the trends of other associated sub industries of fashion.

Just like Handbag industry it is one of the great examples in this

respect. There are lots of unknown facts and figures about this

particular industry which can be useful to anyone. The main reason of

lacking in such crucial information of all these industries is less

awareness and researches being conducted. No one knows why this

industry has been avoided for such long time. If you look are the yearly

demand of handbags you will find it’s more than 150 million.

Yearly demand of handbag industry is more than 150 million; this

demand includes luxury, semi luxury and general handbags. It’s the

global demand in which approx 75% of the demand comes from Asian

countries like China and India. The top ranking country in world

population is China followed by India, so there is no doubt the number

of consumers in these two countries are higher than as compared to

any other country. Here population is playing a big role as top two

countries with highest population lies in Asia which enhance the

revenue.

One more factor which brings Asia on top is having tourist and

shopping hubs like Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. Furthermore if we

have a look over luxury handbags we will find that UK is leading with

28% of consumer share. This is because all luxury handbag industries

belong to European Union.

After demand when we have a look over production of these handbags

we will find Europe as leading producer of luxury bags. Europe alone

have 70% market share of production of luxury handbags. Further

Europe is followed by other countries like US, Australia, Canada and

Asia in luxury handbags production.

Where when look at overall production of handbags world widely we

will find Asia on top with more than 68% market share. This is again

because of low production cost, most of the luxury branded, semi

branded, and non branded handbags manufactures prefer Asia for

production. This is because here they find low cost labor, easy

connectivity and from export point of view as well Asia is the best place

in terms of connectivity.

There was a time when fashion was all about looking awesome, than a

time came when fashion was all about following your favorite celebrity

and now we are enjoying a time when it’s all about brands. Even now

day’s many celebs prefer brands over personal designers. If we have a

look over market share of handbag brands we will find Louis Vuitton is

leading with 31% followed by Chanel 24% preceded by Gucci 15%.

Price of a handbag depends on many things but the most essential

things are the material. Around 40%-70% what you pay is the cost of

material, rest of the amount is branding, labor and other associated

cost. But there is no hard and fast rule, it may possible a hand stitched

bag having low cost material because usually it’s about labor.

Leather is one of the prime material used for manufacturing of

handbags, it’s a symbol of luxury. Top notch brands like Chanel, Hermes

and Louis Vuitton are especially known for their rare leather bags.

Although there are many organizations like PETA who are regularly

spreading the awareness to stop using leather, fur and other animal

extracted products, which decreased the demand of all such products

though out the world. But still rare leather bags are still demand which

force manufacturers to produce these bags.

As leather products are somewhere responsible for death of animals,

manufactures are now using artificial leather in manufacturing of

handbags. This artificial leather is nothing but a type of synthetic

polymer, these polymer are so sophisticated and look like leather.

These polymers are long lasting and have no effect of weather, further

these polymers are easy to available and can be manufactured in

various colors and patterns. All these qualities make these polymers a

primary chose for manufacturers. These polymers are in huge demand

in past 10years it’s increased by 85%.

Another alternative and 100% eco-friendly material used in

manufacturing is fabric. Fabric is easy to produce its natural and not

even affect environment. Easy to stitch, carry and washable, further it

not requires extra care as well.

Thus demand of fabric bags never dropped, it may go out of fashion for

some time. But after some dramatic ups and downs fabric bags are still

in existence and always will be.

No one can ignore an industry which generates global revenue of more

than $300 billion in a financial year which is one fourth of total global

annual revenue of fashion industry i.e. $1,200 billion.

Although handbag industry is generating revenue of $300 but huge

number of manufactures are unknown brands. Where only three

brands are there who are generating a noticeable revenue these are

Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton with $7, $12.1 and $28.4 billion

revenue respectively.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_synthetic_polymers

http://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/

http://www.mllee.com/description/boxeswithouthinges.htm

http://www.worldhandbagreport.com

http://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list

http://www.secretvintagecollection.com