Highlights
- M&S made its London Fashion Week debut with a collection designed to bring runway trends to everyday wardrobes.
- Half of the collection costs less than £50, with the most expensive piece priced at £450.
- From £85 tuxedo jackets to an £89 satin dress, the show mixed fashion-week drama with high-street prices.
Marks & Spencer has made its first London Fashion Week catwalk debut, but the biggest surprise was not the celebrity front row or the runway styling. It was the price tag.
The retailer brought its latest womenswear and menswear collection to the Design Museum on Friday, with models showcasing everything from sharp tailoring and slouchy denim to faux-fur accessories and party dresses. But unlike many London Fashion Week collections, these looks were designed to be bought immediately and worn in everyday life.
Half of the pieces in the collection are priced below £50, while the most expensive item, a leather coat, costs £450.
M&S brings fashion week to the high street
The collection was built around what M&S womenswear director Maddy Evans described as “fashion with a small f, not a capital F”.
Jodie Kidd walks the runway at the M&S show Getty Images
Rather than attempting to dictate the next major fashion movement, M&S focused on trends already making their way into wardrobes. Sharp kilts replaced more traditional tiered skirts, while low-rise, slouchy denim offered an alternative to the familiar mom-jean shape.
There were also faux-fur stoles, oversized sunglasses, neutral tones with flashes of red and a greater emphasis on separates rather than dresses.
The menswear collection included a classic grey office suit, modelled by Lennon Gallagher, alongside chore jackets and other relaxed tailoring.
The prices are the real talking point
For a retailer making its London Fashion Week debut, the decision to put the collection on sale as soon as the show began was significant.
The prices included an £85 double-breasted tuxedo jacket, an £89 ivory satin party dress, a £50 sequin fringe skirt and a £40 red half-zip jumper.
The accessible pricing was central to M&S's messageGetty Images
The collection also included a £250 leather jacket with a borg collar, while the most expensive piece was a £450 leather coat.
The accessible pricing was central to M&S's message. The brand has increasingly focused on fashion credibility while retaining its high-street identity, and its London Fashion Week debut offered a way to show that trend-led clothing does not have to come with designer prices.
A collection designed for real wardrobes
M&S also used the show to celebrate its history, with several pieces taking inspiration from its archives as the retailer marks 100 years of selling fashion.
A reworked twinset appeared alongside a sage-green lace two-piece inspired by the brand's lingerie heritage. Models of different ages and body sizes were also chosen to reflect M&S's customer base.
Lennon Gallagher walks the runway at the M&S showGetty Images
The show attracted 310 guests, including Ian Wright, Jamie Carragher and Joan Collins. Collins reportedly singled out the coats as “very chic”, while also showing interest in an ivory evening dress with caped shoulders.
The collection may not be attempting to define the next big fashion movement, but that was never really the point. M&S's first London Fashion Week show was about taking the looks seen on the runway and making them feel possible for the people watching from outside the fashion bubble.
And with many of the pieces already available for less than £50, that may have been the most unexpected statement of all.
