Women’s fashion is becoming more and more expensive: it is pink inflation

Do you know the pink tax? So we call the fact that the same product, depending on whether it is sold in the women’s or men’s section, will cost more on the female side than on the male side. This can be seen on razors and T-shirts. In 2016, a study by the New York City Department of Consumers compared 800 products and found that, on average, women’s items cost 7% more than their male counterparts.

Women’s clothing costs 6.5% more than in 2000, compared to 0.3% for men

Today Switzerland is making even more worrying figures: inflation rose. The media NZZ am Sonntag(title of the Sunday edition of the Zurich newspaper in German Neue Zürcher Zeitung), carried out an illuminating study based on the Comparis Consumer Price Index, reported by Time. Women’s clothing now costs 6.5% more than in 2000. For men, over the same period, the increase is only 0.3%.

Asked by NZZ am SonntagComparis consumer expert Michael Kuhn speculates that it is the increased markup that brands make on women’s clothing to blame:

” From a competitive standpoint, there is no apparent reason why women’s fashion has become more expensive, while this is not the case with men’s and children’s fashion. “

This rosy inflation may seem unfair to the general public, but it is only pure commercial logic in the capitalist land. It remains to be proved whether what has just been studied in Switzerland is as valid in the rest of the West as in France..

How fashion brands explain the pink tax

However, fashion brands have put forward several arguments to try to justify this pink tax, analyzed in particular by Fashion business in 2016.

First, additional folding work would justify this price difference. This effort would often be diluted even across the women’s line, so much so that you would pay a little more for a basic t-shirt to help the richly embroidered dress, for example, not look too expensive. And since a women’s collection is often more plentiful than a men’s one, it also poses greater financial risks. A brand can then choose to sell it at a higher price to increase its chances of making it profitable. In short, women always have a good back when it comes to fashion.