Could Alexa’s brown suede skirt save M&S?
MADE from brown suede, it is based on a 1970s design and costs £199. And it could be the skirt to save Marks and Spencer.
It has already been seen on fashion trendsetters such as Alexa Chung and been featured in more than 50 magazines – even though it won’t be on sale until next month.
Such is the buzz around the A-line, midlength skirt that M&S buyers have reportedly ordered five times more than originally planned to meet demand. Experts predict it could be just what M&S needs to turn its fashion fortunes around following a decline in womenswear sales. At Christmas sales of clothing, gifts and homewares were down 5.8 per cent on a year ago.
The skirt is top stitched in cream and has pockets at hip level designed to highlight the waist and create a flattering shape.
When it was shown to fashion editors in November, Vogue’s Laura Weir called it ‘a brilliant bit of Ali MacGraw styling’, referring to the US star of 1970 movie Love Story.
Then last month models Miss Chung, 31, and Olivia Palermo, 29, both wore the skirt to New York Fashion week.
Originally due to go on sale in May, it will now be in 35 shops from April 10. Belinda Earl, M&S’s style director, said: ‘The support and excitement we have received has exceeded expectations.’