IADS Press Release : In the Women’s Fashion category, department stores blend bold innovation with legacy labels, engaging younger audiences more compellingly and mastering the art of cross-selling.

As the Women’s Fashion business stabilises in revenue share but diversifies in expression, department stores navigate a delicate balance between innovation and brand loyalty. Going beyond rethinking brand adjacencies to curating assortments that speak across generations, they now use data to unlock new cross-selling potential.

Women’s Fashion remains a cornerstone of the department store business, maintaining a stable share of total sales in 2024. Casual Wear continues to dominate, although its share gradually declines from pandemic-era highs. In terms of price segmentation, year-on-year comparisons show a rise in both the Luxury and Affordable Luxury/Designer segments. Women’s Fashion continues to evolve at the intersection of innovation, loyalty, and customer experience. Department stores across the IADS network respond by blending novelty with heritage, rethinking strategies to appeal to younger generations. Success now hinges on having the right brands or space and the intelligence behind every choice. Data has become the backbone of retail agility, guiding department stores in building relevance and performance.

IADS members unanimously report a growing customer appetite for novelty, anchored in brand familiarity. In a post-pandemic landscape where fashion serves as self-expression and emotional reassurance, department stores adjust their assortments to deliver newness without disorienting customers. At Bloomingdale’s, success hinges on curating pieces that spark curiosity (such as those from Farm Rio and Alémais brands), while grounding the offer in recognisable names like Polo Ralph Lauren. For example, the store’s private label Aqua saw notable results from a recent collaboration with The White Lotus series. Interestingly, the creative twist, more than the brand association, resonated with consumers, underscoring the value of fresh storytelling.

TSUM Kyiv shares a similar dynamic. Their bold launch of Guest in Residence, a cashmere-based brand with a playful aesthetic, paid off thanks to its standout visuals and Spring timing, an unconventional choice that drew strong engagement. Simultaneously, their continued emphasis on well-known luxury names ensures high traffic. TSUM Kyiv also reinforces its novelty appeal with a dedicated floor for Ukrainian designers, proving that local innovation can capture both attention and loyalty.

In contrast, Magasin du Nord reported that while emerging brands may deliver on quality and pricing, they struggle without prior awareness. Customers remain hesitant to explore unknown labels unless trust has been established. Newness must be introduced with precision. Whether by highlighting new collections from iconic houses or incorporating lesser-known names into curated spaces, retailers succeed when innovation is framed within a trusted retail context.

IADS partner NellyRodi identified significant trends shaping Women’s Fashion brand aesthetics. Seriousness establishes fashion as a space for cultural authority. Besides precise silhouettes, this trend is exemplified by initiatives such as the Chanel and Miu Miu book clubs. As seen in Paloma Wool campaigns, the elevated cocoon trend blends softness with structure. The excess trend celebrates ornament and storytelling, as in Schiaparelli and Valentino collections. Body exploration becomes a canvas for free experimentation, as in the latest Duran Lantik runway show. Finally, the origin trend honours imperfection and nature, as shown in Dilara Findikoglyu’s Fall-Winter 25 collection.

Reaching younger customers remains a strategic focus, but approaches vary significantly among department stores. Some retailers adopt a targeted, generation-specific strategy, while others shift towards a transgenerational model, favouring fashion relevance over age segmentation. The success of cross-generational labels like SKIMS at Galeries Lafayette exemplifies this. The store strategy aims to increase purchase frequency and basket size rather than chase volume through entry-level items. Meanwhile, TSUM Kyiv observes that even younger consumers unable to purchase luxury goods still engage with them socially, turning the store into a visual destination and aspirational space.

El Palacio de Hierro embraces a more targeted approach. Their success with Spanish fast-fashion brand Brownie shows the strength of youth-specific labels when properly curated. However, the approach is measured: the store integrates these brands within a larger framework, including denim staples and their private label Catamaran. Moreover, they observe that younger customers are increasingly interested in more premium brands such as Maje, Zadig & Voltaire, and Ganni, reflecting a desire for quality and aspiration beyond price.

Bloomingdale’s adopts a hybrid model. While some fast fashion brands like Edikted are only available online, the store also introduced multi-brand concepts such as Sunset and Spring, designed to attract a younger, style-conscious audience with a curated “best-of” brand experience. This space includes mainstream names like Levi’s and Steve Madden, but the strength lies in the cohesion of the edit.

Reorganising floors and leveraging cross-selling are key priorities for department stores. The Galeries Lafayette Haussmann Women’s Fashion floors underwent a complete reorganisation, abandoning traditional age segmentation in favour of a more strategic, price-driven architecture. This realignment was powered by the analysis of cross-selling data, helping to prioritise business opportunities and customer experience over brand ego. The results are clear: increased dynamism, better customer flow, and more profitable adjacencies. Bloomingdale’s echoed this data-first approach, highlighting the complexity of creating the right adjacencies. While some brands are sensitive about their placement, the final decision ultimately lies in balancing brand image with traffic patterns and productivity per square metre. The rise of e-commerce also plays a role. As online sales grow, the relative importance of physical adjacencies may decrease, allowing for more flexible store planning and hybrid retail models.

Magasin du Nord relies on its Goodie loyalty programme to refine in-store strategies as it provides exceptional visibility into customer behaviour and cross-category correlations. This allows them to curate adjacencies that generate high-impact cross-selling, such as combining Women’s Fashion with beauty products near cash points. Creating “destination within destination” setups is another successful cross-selling strategy, as shown by Galeries Lafayette, offering high-end fragrances within the luxury floor, or Magasin du Nord’s successful athleisure corner added to the Women’s Fashion floor. With only one floor, Tryano creates themed spaces, such as ‘mini-me’ zones for matching adult and children’s outfits or mood-based pop-ups that mix fashion, tech and lifestyle products. These configurations support cross-selling across categories, generations, and household members.

The Women’s Fashion department is no longer managed as a static category but as a dynamic, customer-centric platform. Success today lies in delivering novelty without disorientation, building brand loyalty across generations, and designing environments that inspire discovery and drive relevance. Whether through curated brand mixes or flexible floor layouts, department stores are embracing a more integrated, agile and strategic approach to Women’s Fashion. In doing so, they reaffirm their unique role and position in offering customers style, identity and experience.

Read the full press release below:

Read the full press release, in French, below: