The French textile industry: globalised production, except for luxury products and technical textiles

The textile industry currently represents 2% of the added value of French manufacturing industry and employs 103,000 people. In twenty years, it has lost two-thirds of its workforce and more than half its production. France now has massive imports of textile products, especially clothing and shoes, half of which come from Asia and a third from Europe. French production is mainly organised around textile groups with 250 or more employees, especially multinationals. These groups specialise in producing luxury items, such as leather goods, or producing their own high added-value textiles, such as technical textiles particularly used in the aeronautics and automotive sectors. In clothing, the industrial activity remaining in France consists mainly of industrial customers placing orders with foreign subcontractors.