Sales of irons and steam plants drop from year to year in France. From 3 million to the late 2000s, the number of sales dropped to 1.6 million last year. But that is not to say that the French neglect their outfit. Explanation.
“I still have a few references but more a lot.” In this Bouches-du-Rhône baker department store, finding an iron or a steam generator is hunting for Easter eggs. Rasinage supplied with coffee makers, culinary products, oil -free fryers and other wireless vacuums, but no trace of iron. And it is not because the store sold everything in this spring 2025. It is rather because it has much more to sell.
“I’ve been working at Boulanger for 11 years and this part of the department has continued to decrease,” explains the seller in charge of household equipment. People are buying no longer, I think no one returns to his clothes. “
And it doesn’t seem to be a local specificity. Year after year, the global sales in France of these products are in red. According to the latest annual assessment of the Professional Syndicate of Appliances (GIFAM), sales of irons (-8.7% in value) and vapor power plants (-7.2%) still lost feathers in 2024.
At the end of the 2000s, the French bought 3 million irons and steam plants each year, compared to 1.6 million aircraft in 2024, according to Nielseniq-GFK. In less than 20 years, sales have been divided by two.
More relaxed cloakroom
“A manifest drop in the number of equipment sold” has been noted “since the 2010s,” confirms Laurent Cours, Director of Statistics and Studies of GIFAM, evoking a regular decrease, with the exception of the year 2020 heckled by the COVID-19.
In terms of ironing, the habits of the French have changed: the pile of clothes is lower. In companies, shirts and tailors have deserted many offices for the benefit of a more relaxed wardrobe. In addition, with the boom in telework in companies, it is no longer necessary to wear professional clothes (and correctly ironed) five days out of five.
“The need to iron is less important” than before, observes Laurent Cours.
In general, at work and at home, the French today favor pieces and textile materials which no longer necessarily need to go through the ironing box.
Arrival of the deforways
The French use their irons less often and their steam plants … who wear out less quickly. This slower rhythm of ironing extends the lifespan of the devices “which are kept longer” by their owners, underlines Laurent Cours, which also evokes the arrival of new “innovations” which improve the sustainability of these same devices, such as anti -lime systems.
On the innovation side, the laundry room is also concerned: many washing machines and dryers now have a faulty function, which allows you to recover a more flexible laundry at the end of the program-and which often no longer needs to be ironed.
The deforways have the favors of the French. Since they appeared in France at the turn of the 2010s, they have seen their sales climb from year to year. Cheaper, they allow to remove the folds on the clothes in a minimum of time, which can allow us to happen-this time again-of the ironing phase.
In 2024, sales of deforways further increased by 5.2% compared to the previous year, according to Nielseniq-GFK data for GIFAM. But that it is not mistaken: the increase in sales of defrosts did not offset the drop in sales of irons and steam plants.
“I use my hair to smooth my hair”
Because it is sometimes the D system that prevails, especially with young people. This is the case of Mathilde, 32, teacher without iron.
“When I really need to remove a false fold, I use my iron to smooth the hair, that’s enough,” says the young woman.
New textiles, less strict outfits, less expensive vapor devices … If the sales of irons have fallen for more than a decade, it is therefore not that the French neglect their appearance and their outfit. Ironing “is not a market that has disappeared, far from it,” more nuance Laurent Cours. With a million iron irons and half a million steam power plants sold in 2024, these devices remain in the hard core of the household appliances of a French home.
Jérémy Bruno and Frédéric Bianchi
