Too hard to die: an empirical overview of the post-pandemic resilience and financial performance of the Italian fashion industry

Purpose Researchers have paid limited attention to how the fashion sector has evolved in the years following the pandemic. This study aims to address this gap by providing an overview of the Italian fashion sector and its financial performance related to the concept of resilience. Design/methodology/approach The model is based on a segmentation analysis of 5,129 firms in the Italian fashion sector, utilizing financial variables such as return on equity and return on sales. Moreover, it employs significance tests with the aid of Levene’s test and ANOVA. Findings It was discovered that the debt ratio, operating cash flow and aggregate growth ratio (AGR) over a five-year period exhibit significant differences across clusters. Additionally, it was determined that the debt ratio and operating cash flow are key financial indicators of firm resilience. These data have confirmed the resilience of the Italian fashion sector. Originality/value This study is among the first to focus on the financial performance of the Italian fashion sector, its resilience and post-pandemic recovery, as well as employing a reverse engineering system to identify the most suitable financial indicators for defining a sector’s resilience.