Fashion is out, gadgets are in - a switch in consumer tastes has left European retailers struggling to get their garments off the rails.

According to new research, Europeans are going down-market for clothes to leave themselves cash for homes and the latest technology.

But the report from retail research group Verdict says designers may also have themselves to blame for making their fashions too dull.

Across the progressively enlarging EU, per capita spend has barely risen despite the fact that average earnings have increased.

Names like Marks and Spencer still have market share but they are mostly home-based. At the same time, the fastest growth in clothing sales has been at the emergent end of the EU, where Slovakia's per capita spend has gone up more than 35% from 2001-2006, and Estonia's has almost doubled.

In the UK, growth over the same period has been 7.3%, while in Italy, home of the fashionisti, per capita spend has gone down 3.1%.

Verdict's verdict is that Europeans are finding the allure of technology - the latest TVs, MP3 players, mobile phones and computers of various shapes and sizes - and property, more attractive.

The combination of space growth, an ageing population and muted fashion trends have helped to dampen the attractions of fashion: increasingly, consumers are making do with what they already have in their wardrobes or are turning to cheaper stores like Primark, TK-Maxx or H&M.

The report notes: "There is a clear message to the expansion-hungry fashion retailers from the more mature markets: if you want to be able to move into the fast lane of retail sales growth, you may well have to look to the east where the growing EU fashion markets are less saturated and consumer appetites have yet to be sated."

Shoppers in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, tended to support this analysis yesterday. Lisa Murphy, 27, and her sister Kerry, 33, from Ardrossan, were out shopping with Kerry's soon-to-be sister-in-law, Amanda McRorie, 27.

"I think it's true," Kerry said. "We have just been walking past some designer shops we used to shop in. Now we are more likely to go to places like TK-Maxx or Primark.

"It's not that we are into gadgets - you need to spend more nowadays to get a house. I have one and I am watching the mortgage rate anxiously."

Lisa said: "I have just bought a flat with my fiance and now I am saving for my wedding."

Amanda said: "We used to shop in designer shops. I don't think we even go in Oasis or River Island now. But you can still dress fashionably in the cheaper shops."

However, another shopper, wearing an i-Pod and carrying a designer carrier-bag said: "I don't agree. My daughter of 12 bought me the iPod so that I can listen to something while I am out buying clothes."