M&S has spent a century making clothes for everyday wardrobes. On Friday, it put those clothes on a London Fashion Week catwalk for the first time.
The debut show, held at the Design Museum, marked 100 years since M&S began selling clothing in 1926. It featured 57 looks across womenswear and menswear, with pieces available to buy immediately after the show.
Rather than recreate its archive, M&S used it as a starting point. Its in-house designers looked through historical garments, prints, fabrics and silhouettes before adapting selected references for the current collection.
That approach was most obvious in the womenswear. A 1960s-inspired twinset appeared as a modern knitted set, while the familiar combination of a tuxedo and white shirt was given updated proportions. Lace bodies and camisoles were styled as outerwear, drawing on M&S’s long history in lingerie.
The outerwear and denim also looked to the past. Wide-leg jeans referenced 1970s styles, while a tan leather borg jacket was based on a St Michael design from the archive.
Three pieces came particularly close to their historical sources: a Per Una shearling jacket, plus a skirt and dress featuring a new floral print based on two archive designs.
Menswear followed a similar route. The collection included a dry-wax car coat, Japanese selvedge denim, checked outerwear and velvet tailoring with references to styles from previous decades.
The show was notable for what happened after the final walk, too. M&S used a “see now, buy now” format, making the entire runway collection available immediately. Half of the pieces are priced below £50.
That decision puts the focus on how the clothes translate beyond the runway. M&S has long occupied a different part of the fashion market from luxury labels that use Fashion Week to preview collections months ahead. Here, the runway and the shop floor are much closer together.
The collection was developed by M&S’s UK-based design teams. The company employs 116 designers across womenswear, menswear, lingerie, kidswear and home.
Their starting point was the M&S Archive in Leeds, which holds more than 72,000 historical items. The archive documents not only the company’s products but also changes in British clothing over the past century.
M&S entered the clothing market in 1926 with ready-made items including pullovers, petticoats and underwear. Its offering expanded over the decades, becoming a familiar part of British high-street shopping.
The centenary collection draws on that history without attempting to reproduce it. The references are there, but they sit alongside contemporary tailoring, denim, knitwear and outerwear.
The collection is available through M&S’s UK and international websites, as well as selected flagship stores in the UK and Ireland. Customers in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland can also access selected pieces through Zalando.
For M&S, the London Fashion Week debut is a significant change in setting. The brand has spent decades designing for the high street. This time, it brought that work to one of fashion’s most closely watched stages.
