First look at Marks and Spencer's Spring collection

Sales are still down - but a zingy spring M&S collection augurs green shoots ahead for Britain's biggest clothing retailer, says Luke Leitch

BY Luke Leitch | 13 November 2013

When Belinda Earl declares 'I'm feeling very balanced - and I'm still standing', it is tempting to quote her out of context. Because one year and one collection into her job as style director at Marks & Spencer, Earl has become the most scrutinised executive in high street fashion. A week ago Britain's biggest clothing retailer announced its ninth consecutive decline in clothing sales - and, as usual, newspaper pages and news TV schedules were cleared to analyse the perceived malaise at Marks.

READ: Marks & Spencer's leading ladies fail to turn fortunes

Despite the fact that the first season on her watch, Autumn/Winter 2013, was on sale for only three weeks of that quarter, Earl has become the personification of M&S's efforts to reboot its fortunes in the fashion market. Even when the company scores a hit (such as the pink and blue £85 duster coats that so transfixed fashion editors when they were revealed), it generates criticism (for not ordering nearly enough of them to satisfy demand). How M&S must long to strip its critics of the stick they beat it with by breaking that quarterly cycle of decline.

Yet if Earl is feeling the pressure, her poker face was worthy of Vegas as she joined her design team to unveil M&S's collections for next spring and summer yesterday.

READ: Marks & Spencer limited stocks to protect brand exclusivity

Take that 'I'm still standing' line: no impassioned cri de coeur , it was praise for the now-universal stabilising 'Insolia' inserts in the soles of her Marks & Spencer high-heeled shoes. And while market confidentiality prohibited her from commenting on sales in the current quarter, Earl said: 'We're happy in the way that customers have responded to the upgrades.' Apparently 41 per cent say they've 'recognised an improvement in quality' in M&S's Autumn collections. 'And when you try to measure quality,' added Earl, 'it's about the whole experience; about the store environment, about the service, about the labelling. The customers are responding to that.'

So, then, what of spring? Here are the five headlines.

EVERYTHING'S ROSIE Underwear has long been Marks & Spencer's bedrock department - and it is fighting off the challenge of frillier foreign invaders such as Victoria's Secret with some élan. The Rosie for Autograph range of lingerie and nightwear was the company's fastest-ever selling collection of silk underwear. For spring, its genteelly floral collection, designed in collaboration with Rosie Huntington-Whitely, has been broadened into sleepwear.

Rosie for Marks & Spencer; from £12.50

BRITAIN IS IN AGAIN Marks & Spencer's dedication to offering its overwhelmingly British customer base a selection of overwhelmingly Britishmade clothes lapsed in the 1980s. Now, a volte-face: its Best of British collection, for both women and men, is often excellent and all homegrown.

Neil Hendy, the M&S head of design who steers it, said: 'We touch on heritage but it's also about making desirable modern clothing.' This full skirt and shirt combination, worn above Northampton-made brogues, is the standout look, but the womens' suiting, T-shirt knits, jacquard dresses and white trench are equally attractive. The menswear is more traditional, to great effect.

Best of British Shirt, £99. Skirt, £79, Shoes £165

COST VS QUALITY Marks & Spencer's key task is to offer the quality garments its customers demand without giving us the jitters when we get to the cash till. Providing Prada quality at Primark prices is impossible, but M&S has made a fair bid to square that circle. Its leather bags - many of them Somersetmade - hover around the £99 mark, while there are convincing leather alternatives for a third of that. New head of design recruit Queralt Ferrer has injected a shot of complicated, sophisticated texture and technique into the range but kept prices meaningfully south of their equivalents at her alma mater, Massimo Dutti. And there are plenty of maximum impact meets minimum expenditure items, like this textured green dress.

M&S Collection dress £45

EMBRACING THE TRENDS Karen Peacock, the head of design whose responsibilities include accessories, says that even some of Marks & Spencer's staunchest customers have rapidly changing tastes: 'She wants a beautiful edit of the trends, and she is very fashion aware.' Any follower of designer collections will spot (respectful) echoes of Pierre Hardy, Pucci, Tabitha Simmons, Celine, Victoria Beckham and others when the new season's clothes, shoes and bags begin to arrive in stores next year - and there's nothing wrong with that. Accessorywise, M&S has bet on boots, increasing its order sevenfold compared to last spring. Standouts include Chelsea boots with contracoloured panels and gamine double monkstraps.

Bag, £35, Boots, £45, Shoes £29.50

TEAM WORK TO TURN AROUND M&S With all its key looks forensically corralled on the rails - and all its heads of design (above) on hand to talk editors through them - yesterday's presentation of next spring's Marks & Spencer collections were presented on an idealised version of the shopfloor. The real test will come when the sales assistants introduce the customers to the clothes as they start to arrive in stores on January 9. Transmitting the attractions of its summer linen (all easy iron), its fitted dresses (predominantly internally lined), its lace (guipure) and its 'Staynew', fixed dyeing processes (built to withstand long-term washing) will be as important as steering customers to the collections and trends that interest them most.

Earl said: 'We have to be confident in our own ability to predict what customers will want to have in their wardrobes. But I get a lot of advice, too! We have a strong team, we are working together - and we are going to deliver.'

The M&S design team, from left, Neil Hendy, Karen Peacock, Frances Russell (trading director), Belinda Earl, Queralt Ferrer, Tony O'Connor (menswear)

LEMONS IS THE LATEST SQUEEZE If you failed to find that pink coat, then fret not - there's a gently acidic lemon alternative for spring [see main image]. Should this lemon zinger prove as hotly desired as its pink predecessor, you'll probably have to move fast. Earl said: 'Obviously we don't want to have excess stock out there, but we do want to satisfy our customers as much as we can... But not everybody wants to be wearing the same thing. And while we have to focus on certain items, we need to have breadth at the same time.' Single notched and double buttoned, this lighter weight coat is the standout in a selection that ranges from a pale blue, Britishmade jacquard cocoon coat (£249) to a reverse-lapel mid-lengther in Aegean Sea azure.

Coat M&S Collection £95. Top £22:50. Skirt £35. Shoes £19:50