EARTH-SHATTERING news from Middle England's
retail cornerstone: Marks &
Spencer will be joining the see-now, buy-now model for
autumn.
Those au fait with fashion's new favourite compound
adjective will recognise this as a highly trendy move. Burberry,
Tom Ford and Vetements have all announced that they will forgo the traditional catwalk schedule in favour of showing
collections that will become immediately available for
purchase.
So, on Wednesday May 11, concurrent to the unveiling of
M&S's autumn/winter 2016 collection to the fashion press, one
segment of it will go on sale online and in 26 stores - six months
earlier than it usually would. Eschewing heavy, winter pieces, the
"Big Easy" autumn trend, as M&S is calling it, comprises
minimalist, transitional items that will slot into your wardrobe as
easily as your foot will slide into one of its Gucci-inspired
backless loafers this season. Highlights include a Céline-ish white
shirt dress with an exposed seam, a lovely pair of wide-legged
cream denim sailor pants with the requisite on-trend raw edge, and
a black maxi dress with rust-coloured top stitching.It's a neat strategy. In recent years, the M&S press day has become something of an event, garnering the kinds of column inches that other high street brands can only wish for. The frenzy often leads to random pieces of clothing becoming proper nouns - see: The Pink Coat, The Suede Skirt - and garnering waiting lists comprising hundreds of customers who are all presumably baffled to learn they must wait another three months for the hallowed brown Seventies-inspired suede skirt that Alexa Chung's currently sassing around in to actually reach them. By releasing part of their autumn collection six months early, M&S can capitalise on the press coverage and better service their customers.
What, then, from the rest of the autumn collection, is worth waiting until September for? A navy pleated skirt with a silver metallic tag on the hip neatly picks up on the clean, modernist aesthetic that characterises a lot of stylish women's wardrobes. A tawny utility skirt, complete with chunky pockets and coal black buttons, is on the money for work and play. So too a green velvet double-breasted blazer, which is smart but hangs slouchily, and a Gucci-style black and emerald printed midi dress.
The outerwear is particularly strong. A leopard print faux fur coat with a Sixties collar in the Per Una range drew admiring glances; a lovely Prada-esque tweedy coat with embellished shoulders looked more expensive than its £100 price tag; and an Autograph camel coat with a silver metal detail on the hip would bolster any woman's wardrobe.
Not surprisingly, in a season where heritage fabrics were such a big trend story, M&S's Best of British offering is particularly strong for winter. The stand-outs: a workwear-blue trench coat, a pinstriped midi dress and a thick tweed grey great coat - there's lots here for the fashion fan enamoured with Prada's tweeds and DKNY's suiting.
Will it be enough to entice the M&S woman back into store? Lord knows it needs to. In April it was revealed that clothing and homeware sales dropped 2.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2016. As M&S's new chief executive Steve Rowe said at the time: "We've not been as stylish as we need to be, not had the availability and need to make sure we have the right product at the right price." At least the see-now, buy-now segment of this autumn collection will tick the "at the right time" box.
Regardless, the mood at M&S headquarters is resolutely upbeat. The Archive by Alexa collection, which hit stores in early April, has performed well across the board with several pieces selling out. Despite the headache-inducing overall clothing downturn, sales in its Autograph collection were up 10 per cent. And Queralt Ferrer, the Spanish director of design for womenswear, lingerie and beauty is committed to creating waiting-list-worthy pieces. "There is pressure, of course, but we don't set out thinking: 'What is going to get everyone talking?'," she says, when we discuss The Suede Skirt furore. "We want to design pieces that reference a trend but are strong in their own right, as well as something that is super wearable."
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