The Chain Store Challengeperformance fabrics from the active sportswear market to being an acceptable
and essential part of everyone’s wardrobe. At the same time, the market
learned to accept casualwear classics such as chinos and jeans as staple items.
For years, we at Marks & Spencer had believed that we could never move
into the jeans market, that it was a business best left to the brands. But when
we did introduce them in the early 1990s we discovered that the trend was
so powerful that by 1994 we had developed a £60 million annual jeanswear
business across mens’, women’s and children’s wear.
Our market research during the 1990s revealed that our customers,
particularly the influential baby boomers, were and are continuing to enjoy
more leisure time, taking more and longer holidays throughout the year, and
participating in more sports and fitness activities. Changing lifestyle dictated
changing spending patterns. We found that customers were becoming less
interested in carefully coordinated looks. The emerging market was motivated
by the acquisition of versatile pieces, either basics or ‘hot’ items that would
update the wardrobe. We christened the trend ‘item shopping’ and in terms
of design we fed the demand by addressing subtle changes in core items. So,
the white cotton shirt would become longer and french-cuffed, then collarless
and more fitted, deconstructed then refabricated. The black polo neck would
become a tunic, lose its rib, become small-shouldered and shrunken, sleek
and layered, soft and felted. We discovered that customers responded to pieces
that could be interpreted in a variety of ways, according to taste and allowed
the gradual evolution of their wardrobes. This of course represented a radical
shift from the approach that prevailed at the beginning of my design career,
where I had responded to the market for complete new looks every six weeks.
Item shopping is still very much part of our lives, but market saturation
has taken its toll and replacement purchases of core product continue to
decline. Added to this is the changing profile of the customer, who, through
constant exposure, is becoming wiser, more astute, more confident in mixing
products and consequently, likely to be less brand loyal. This has not only
intensified the necessity to maintain demand through technological develop-
ments which provide greater comfort, functionality and practicality (support-
ive stretch ‘footglove’ shoes and non-iron shirts are just two examples) but
also highlights the need for new, exciting products that stimulate the desire
to buy on impulse. Alongside the ‘sensible’ purchases, we have discovered
that the customer responds well to the aspirational, luxurious appeal of, for
example, the pashminas and cashmeres that we introduced in 1999.
Predictably, the demand for anonymous basics in its turn spawned a
renewed interest in conspicuous ‘design’. We responded to this with the launch
of our Autograph range in Spring 2000. For the first time Marks & Spencer
worked directly with independent designers such as Betty Jackson, Julien