Boring clothes in a sea of dullness
Ex-Vogue editor’s searing verdict on M&S
ITS focus on British-made quality tailoring and customer service helped make it the country’s biggest clothing retailer.
But as sales dwindle at Marks and Spencer, Alexandra Shulman has slammed the retailer’s ‘boring’ clothes and described its stores as ‘ a sea of dullness’.
The 60-year- old former editor of British Vogue gave an excoriating verdict on the company, and said that it was ‘struggling’ because the shopping experience is inferior to high street rivals.
She said: ‘We have the best high street, especially in London we are so lucky.
‘You have Topshop, Gap, Cos, & Other Stories – it’s amazing what the offering is and then you’ve got poor Marks and Spencer which is struggling.
‘I really think Marks and Spencer is having problems because what they are doing is not very interesting. Boring.
‘You go into their stories and it’s a sea of dullness. And what is unquestionably true now is if you want people to go into your shop, into your bricks and mortar space – and all of these high street stores are committed to a lot of space – then you have to have a reason why people are going to walk into the shop rather than just looking online.
‘This should be a good opportunity for people to look at what they can do to improve the shopping experience.’
Miss Shulman made her comments during a talk at the JW3 centre in London on Sunday despite reportedly being given an M&S ‘black card’ in 2005, which gave her 20 per cent of all clothes. The criticism comes as M&S battles a long-term decline in clothes sales.
The retailer announced last month that more than 100 stores will close by 2022, including 21 that have already shut as customers increasingly shop online.
While the company has dominated the UK clothing market for decades, its position as the clothes retailer with the largest market share is now ‘perilously close to being lost to Primark this year’, according to data firm Global Data. In 1997, M&S achieved a peak clothing market share of 13.5 per cent in the UK, but that has now slumped to just 7.6 per cent, while Primark currently has a 7 per cent slice.
Miss Shulman who stepped down from Vogue last year after 25 years at the helm, also revealed her and US Vogue editor Anna Wintour were ‘in no shape or form’ friends. Miss Shulman and Miss Wintour were once said to be embroiled in ‘fashion’s frostiest feud’.
But there was laughter at the weekend when she was asked by a member of the audience: ‘ How well do you know Anna Wintour?’
Miss Shulman replied: ‘ We worked parallel lives for 25 years so I do know Anna. I wouldn’t say we spent a lot of time having coffee together.
‘She was brought up in London so we both know a lot of the same people outside of the fashion world. She is an extraordinary character.
‘She is the most hard-working, most driven most convinced person that I’ve ever met. She is a wonderful editor.
‘ We hosted some events together. But I wouldn’t say we were in any shape or form friends. We wouldn’t call each other for a chat.’