The Irish storm into London

SHE’S a 32-year-old stick insect. He is Marks & Spencer, 100 years her senior. Their nuptials were celebrated on Thursday night at a glamorous party that also marked the start of London Fashion Week.

There were canapes of risotto balls, flutes of sparkling wine, and big hitters from the glossy magazine world, all present and correct.

Not that Alexa Chung – who has just been hired by M&S to give mouth-to-mouth to its womenswear, which has been flatlining for some years now – would ever ingest something as carb-laden as a risotto ball.

Alexa was offered over €500,000 a few years ago to front a campaign by Debenhams but, canny young woman that she is, she turned it down. Debenhams is too Bridget Jones, too lumpen, too old.

The Anglo-Chinese model has scooped many designer collaborations along the way – Mulberry, Maje, Madewell, Longchamp. Who would have thought she would abandon her high-end designer aspirations and instead rummage through the M&S archive in Leeds?

She’s come up with 31 remodelled hits from the archives – no shoulder pads, no unforgiving fabric

‘We want to look smart at work, sexy on a date’

with no stretch, no scratchy wool.

The serious talks about hiring Alexa happened after she appeared last year in an M&S suede skirt (the photo op was far from accidental: she was gifted the skirt, and allegedly paid to wear it). M&S went on to sell a staggering 4,500 suede skirts in six weeks.

Alexa was wooed by M&S’s style supremo Belinda Earl – hired in 2012 to work just three days a week. While I admire Belinda, I think she is too rich and classy (ex Jaeger and Aquascutum) to understand the average M&S woman. She has been trying to foist on us wool pea coats at over £340 when all we want is to look smart at work, sexy on a date, relaxed at the weekend, and to pay our mortgage. Alexa wore a khaki trench (£89) – inspired by a gabardine coat from the 1950s – to the launch party, where eight pieces were

unveiled.

There are lots of classic basics in her collection (I love the fact M&S released a photo of Alexa, pencil in mouth, at the drawing board), with a few frilly bits and bobs.

A double-breasted blazer (£49.50) could have worked well, but it’s a little boxy – women with breasts need a waist. The wide-legged trousers with turn-ups – very 1970s – (£39.50) are fine if you are tall and thin, or on stilts. A pinstripe shirt (£35) that Alexa will doubtless wear over bare legs is OK and a nice staple most of us will wear over leggings or jeans.

But here’s the thing. Just look at those prices: ten times less than what we’ve been force-fed over the past few seasons by Marks.

I would buy Alexa’s trench, no question – 11,000 people have registered their interest for it on the M&S website. M&S is on to a winner for its womenswear, but I just wonder if sales of its sticky toffee pudding might dwindle?