Oh dear, M&S is in the headlines and under fire again.
But CEO Steve Rowe shouldn’t be worried or downhearted; it is the price you pay for being the nation’s best known, most iconic High Street brand. Everyone writes about you and talks about you.
Mr Rowe should console himself with Oscar Wilde’s dictum: “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about.”
The latest round of headlines follow a quarterly fall in fashion sales of 4%, and an announcement that M&S will be shutting stores in China, France and the UK as well as switching some UK store to stand-alone food shops.
Realistically, as the UK’s Retail Revolution revs up (i.e. more and more of us buy more and more online instead of in bricks-and-mortar stores), shutting stores is the only sensible response. It would have happened regardless of whether fashion sales at M&S had fallen 4% or had risen 40%.
In the past, SoSensational has criticised M&S for all kinds of crimes against fashion. Notably, fabrics, colours and prints. We have observed that “often fabrics feels as if they have been spun from nuclear waste, colours are synthetic-looking and out of sync with current trends” and we said their prints were “quite simply horrible.” We also criticised the M&S collection from Twiggy noting that one particular garment appeared “to have been created by a delinquent three-year-old…in collaboration with someone who made tents for Blacks Leisure.” We also said: “Twiggy, who remains a slender woman, looks like a sofa …so what hope is there for any woman with a real body?”
However, we think M&S fashion is much, much better these days; they appear to have gone back to their strength: lots of great basics in good colours and better fabrics plus a handful of really desirable trend-led pieces for the less conservative “core customer” (that’s us, by the way, the over-50s), and for the younger customer.
Aha, the Younger Customer: we’d tell you again why we think Alexa Chung is a poor fit for M&S and its “core customers” (i.e. us)… but TBH, we’ve changed our mind; we think that at M&S HQ someone realised that as well as doing better for “the core customer” they also needed to bring on the next generation of customers, which is where the edgier choices of Alexa Chung, including faux-fur jackets and PVC mini-skirts come in…
What do you think about M&S closing some stores? Tell us below!
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3 Comments
Trying to buy winter basics, I encountered the perennial problem. Check out the photos of the Heatgen™ Thermal Long Sleeve Tops. The mocha top has a huge, wide neckline whereas the grey has a horseshoe shaped neckline.
Over the years I have bought many M&S plain long-sleeved T-Shirts and there is no consistency in sizing, length or necklines.
M & S do great food .More of that please!!
They do not know where they fit within the fashion industry!
and to be honest their customers don’t know either.
I only buy when they have sales, prices are higher that other fashion retailers (older ladies can shop at Top Shop /River Island/Zara) just to name a few. still good for PJ’s and underwear!
Dear Patricia, Thanks for taking the time to comment. It appears you’ll get your wish for more M&S food stores. You make a very good point about M&S not knowing where they fit in the fashion industry. They do flit between older and younger customers, and between classics and trends. We hope they will now decide that it should be about great clothing and great quality plus a few trend-led pieces… like you, we hope for some clear thinking.