FINALLY! M&S has worked out what we women want to wear
As Marks reports soaring sales, JO ELVIN says . . .
Not so long ago, walking through womenswear at Marks & Spencer felt less like shopping and more like being on the Crystal Maze. Crammed with stock of every style and colour, jumbled onto rail after rail, you almost needed a machete and compass to navigate your way.
If I’d had to sum up the M&S approach to fashion for the past two decades, I’d have said ‘confused’ (if I was being kind) and ‘utterly shambolic’ (if not).
As a clothes addict and former editor of Glamour and the Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine, fashion matters to me. But I cannot recall the last piece of clothing I bought there. Maybe a navy jumper in 2019? Nothing as memorable as the much-loved Percy Pigs — my usual reason for running into M&S.
In a quest to be all things to all people, M&S fashion had ended up appealing to hardly anyone.
I wonder if outgoing chief executive Steve Rowe felt the same, as lately there’s been a palpably different vibe. this is the first full week on the job for new co-CEos Stuart Machin and Katie Bickerstaffe, ex-head of the M&S clothing and home division, so I visited three of Marks’s big London stores — oxford Street, Marble Arch and Kensington High Street. And I’m delighted to say, there’s been a radical transformation.
Your eyes no longer hurt looking across the expanse of fashion floor. there’s more room to browse. trends and colours that work together are displayed in zones, so harried shoppers can easily piece together a look. there’s less stock on show, which ironically gives me the sense there’s more choice as what is there is considered and, yes, nice. Really nice.
I’m not surprised to learn the store’s fashion profits are up — after a rocky few years, clothing sales have risen 3.8 per cent in the past financial year.
So what’s the secret? Stocking other brands doesn’t hurt. M&S bought Jaeger last year and now owns a 25 per cent stake in British eco-label Nobody’s Child. Both are displayed alongside Seasalt Cornwall, FatFace, White Stuff and Hobbs. M&S online now has more than 40 brands, including Jigsaw and Sosander.
THIS injects a little style savvy and makes popping in much more of a literal ‘one-stop shop’. I also think that finally, after many wilderness years of kneejerking from one new direction to another, and hitching its wagon to such wildly varied celebrities as Alexa Chung, Holly Willoughby and Helen Mirren, M&S has reconnected with what middle-aged British women want to wear.
It helps that we are embracing the ‘smart comfort’ aesthetic born in lockdown. We might be back in the office but we’re in no mood to relinquish our working-from-home wardrobes. We want just-smartenough versions of our casual clothes. Joyously, Marks appears to have got the message.
the first hints came in 2020 with the launch of the GoodMove sports range. Now a UK market leader, it shifts 1.6million items a year. Good-quality patterned yoga leggings for £25 when competitors charge upwards of £100? No wonder it’s a hit.
And its edit of day-to-day clothes can compete with the High Street, too. there’s midi-length dresses that work for the office and the park. trousers with drawstring waists that are kind to tummies but are smartly tailored.
the denim has a modern edge, with details such as raw hems and deliberately looser styles normally associated with younger, hipper stores like Zara or H&M.
the knitwear has been on point for a while. I spot cheering bright colours and pretty ombre detailing. Notably absent are the mumsy floral prints — a former staple.
My 80-year-old mother-in-law likes modern prints and comfortable cuts just as much as I do — as does her granddaughter, aged 24. M&S seems to get this now.
But the shoes are my best discovery. It has always been good at sensible comfort — but now there are designs that are downright catwalk cool. I’ve snapped up some fabulous rope sandals for £35 — a good riff on a £600 Gianvito Rossi pair. It also has great neonbright mules, also £35, clearly inspired by Bottega Veneta’s £800 quilted leather versions.
It’s fair to say the brand’s also been ‘inspired’ (cough) by the ‘elevated basics’ vibe of independents like Me+Em, Wyse and Hush.
M&S has the economies of scale that mean it can deliver similar quality more cheaply than smaller brands. the mystery is why they haven’t been doing it for years.
A more surprising but smart move is to work with Instagram influencers such as Megan Ellaby and designer Fran Bacon to lure in younger shoppers and fashionconscious mums. they have 223,000 and 135,000 followers respectively.
SURE, the Holly Willoughby collections do well and her summer range launches next week. But I’d wager her admirers are already M&S shoppers. When Fran Bacon designed her chic bow sandals for M&S, they were snapped up faster than Colin the Caterpillar cakes.
Even the menswear seems to have more pep in its step. I found navy and white linen shirts in geoprint designs that I’d risk buying for my picky husband. It’ll take a particularly confident man, though, to pull off the bolder, printed shirts that are too reminiscent of Hawaii.
No department store will please everyone all of the time. And I’ll always detest M&S’s novelty moments, such as a t-shirt emblazoned with ‘Jubilee 2022’ — relevant for exactly 96 hours from today. I’m also very bah humbug about the acres of landfill, ie tinselly Christmas jumpers.
But all things considered, I’m stamping this report card with a big fat A. It’s something of a relief as the success or failure of our beloved British institution feels vital to the nation.
Well exhale, one and all, for M&S has got its fashion mojo well and truly back.