Only two in 10 consumers across the UK, France and Italy have used a repair service offered by a fashion brand, a survey of more than 3,000 adults has found, exposing a sharp visibility gap between retailers and the customers already sending garments to tailors.

What did the survey cover?

The report, titled "Repair Culture in Fashion," was published jointly by consultancy Create Sustain, payments platform Klarna, and aftercare tech firm Save Your Wardrobe. Fieldwork polled 3,000-plus adults in the UK, France, and Italy. Seven in 10 had repaired at least one garment in the past 12 months, and 30% said they now repair more than three years ago.

The report does not disclose which product categories respondents repaired, a gap the authors flag in the methodology. Consumers, the report notes, are more likely to repair premium and high-value items than fast-fashion purchases — a recognition that "sometimes it is easier to replace than repair."

How visible are brand repair services?

More than half of respondents said they did not know brands offered repair services at all. That awareness deficit underwrites the headline finding and frames the entire brand-communication problem the survey surfaces.

"Repair is usually positioned at the end of the customer journey: something a brand offers once a product needs help. Our findings suggest the offer could have value much earlier," the report stated.

Where do consumers actually send damaged garments?

Most respondents turn to friends, family, a trusted tailor, or do the work themselves rather than contact the original retailer. The authors frame the underlying economics of replacement directly:

"For many customers, a new item has a known price, requires little effort and is available immediately. Repair can ask for money, time and a decision about whether something is worth saving — sometimes without certainty about the final result."

How do repair attitudes differ by country?

The survey shows a southern European tilt toward paid professional mending:

• Italy: nearly half of consumers would choose professional repair for a damaged favorite item
• UK: 27%
• France: 26%

Attitudes also diverge by age, gender, and economic class, the report said. Its takeaway for global brand teams: "For brands, this means localizing repair can't stop at translating the webpage. A proposition that feels intuitive in Milan may need to work differently in Manchester or Marseille."

Will shoppers reward brands for offering repair?

On stated intent, most say yes:

• 78% said repair services must become more visible through in-store or online messaging
• 71% said a repair offer would make them more loyal to the brand
• 76% said it would make them more likely to buy from the brand again

The authors caution against reading these as commercial guarantees: "These are strong signals, but they need to be read for what they are: stated attitudes and hypothetical intentions, not evidence that repair causes greater loyalty, higher spend or repeat purchase." The signals are, in the report's own language, "worth testing."

What does this force for sourcing and aftercare teams?

For apparel brands, the operational call is whether to push a localized repair proposition up the funnel, into in-store signage and e-commerce merchandising, rather than park it as a back-end response. The awareness deficit among UK and French shoppers makes consumer-facing messaging the first operational problem to solve.

In Italy, where willingness to pay for professional mending runs higher than in the other two markets, the test is whether to deepen partnerships with independent repair providers rather than build in-house capacity. Both routes push repair further up the customer journey, the report suggested.

The 71% loyalty figure and the 76% repeat-purchase figure are stated attitudes the report says are "worth testing," with the caveat that they have not yet been confirmed by actual purchasing behavior. For sourcing and customer-experience teams, the next decision is which markets deserve a localized repair proposition, and how visible that proposition needs to be to close the awareness gap this survey has surfaced.