The report examines purchasing of fashion items including clothing, footwear and accessories for key summer events such as holidays, festivals and special occasions. The unpredictable summer weather in the UK in 2015 has impacted the market and retailers are having to look closely at ways of responding to this and driving purchasing.

Young women remain the main buyers of clothes and footwear for summer holidays, despite men aged 16-24 being the main summer holidaymakers. Young males are twice as likely as women to not have purchased anything new for their trip and, while there has been a growing focus on men’s swimwear and beachwear, with new brands entering the market, there is still further growth potential for the young male holiday wear market.

The festival clothing market is driven by young people, even though slightly older consumers aged 25-34 are as likely as their younger counterparts to have gone to a festival in 2015. This highlights the potential for retailers to also design wearable festival fashion aimed at this demographic.

Occasionwear specialists are struggling to compete in a market where over half of consumers shop at their usual clothing retailers when buying fashion items for a special summer event such as weddings, parties and the proms.

This report looks at the fashion items, including clothing, accessories and footwear that people purchase for key events in the summer season.

The report looks at:

• Holidays

• Festivals

• Parties

• Weddings

• Other special events eg races, balls, christenings, parties, graduations etc.