Pubs are top for fashion theft

A study of 2,000 UK adults, for fashion website Style Compare, found that three in 10 people said they had had items stolen while in a pub or club. This was ahead of clothes being borrowed by friends or family and not returned (27%), theft from a person’s home (17%) and clothes being stolen from a place of work (10%).

Festivals accounted for 5% of thefts, parties accounted for 3%  while 7% of thefts were uncategorised.

The UK’s fashion theft hotspot was Swansea where 32% of residents said they had an item of clothing stolen in the past 12 months 

London was next highest on the list, with 25% of having clothes stolen in the last year. Birmingham (27%) Edinburgh (24%) and Manchester (21%) followed.

 It also found that overall a whopping 17% of Brits have had an item of clothing stolen in the past 12 months, with 18 to 24-year-olds the most likely victims. One in four (25%) Britons aged 18 to 24 said they had suffered from a fashion theft in the past year. 

Topping the list of most stolen brands were Adidas (19% of thefts) and Barbour (12%). Calvin Klein and Burberry were reported as the most stolen designer brands, collectively accounting for 13% of items stolen.  

Men were slightly more likely to have an item of clothing stolen than women as 18% had clothes stolen in the past year, compared to 15% of women. 

Style Compare founder Jonny Challenger said: “Anecdotally, most thefts described in our study were opportunist and thankfully non-violent, with people commonly having unattended clothes swiped or taken by mistake while out and about.”