So much for cultural diversity. A report on global fashion trends predicts that we are all going to buy our clothes from a handful of big international fashion chains in future.

The likes of Gap, Uniqlo and H&M will dictate what people wear around the world.

Ten years ago the global fashion landscape was shaping up to be a fight between H&M, Spain's Inditex (the owner of Zara) and Gap, according to a report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Since then, others have joined the fray: Esprit, based in Asia, but whose largest market is Germany, Italy's Benetton and most recently Uniqlo from Japan and Abercrombie from the US.

The European retailers were the first to go global – which is not very surprising given the small size of their home markets. For example, Sweden's H&M opened its first store outside Scandinavia in 1976 while it took Gap until 1987 to open in London and Fast Retailing until 2001 to open its first Uniqlo store in the UK.

China is shaping up to be a key battleground for foreign retailers. Uniqlo, Inditex and H&M are already there and Gap is planning to open stores in China this year.

A sad fact is that none of the big international players is British. Marks & Spencer has a mixed track record abroad and has found it difficult to compete in places like Germany. The launch of its flagship store in Shanghai two years ago turned into a disaster. Shoppers shunned it for being too British and too expensive, and at times the shelves were empty due to supply problems.

No M&S knickers for the Chinese, then.

Meanwhile in Britain, it looks like more and more people will shop at M&S, as well as Debenhams and Next, over time as the population ages.

So unpopular overseas and unfashionable at home. It's not much of a fashion future to look forward to.