M&S – what’s in store for AW24?

So here we are, this weekend brings with it the autumn equinox. As I type I’m looking out at a garden shrouded in early morning mist, the apple tree is heavy with fruit but it’s been a poor year for the pears. The morello cherries have gone to the birds… again. There’s a single day where the fruit suddenly turns sweet and somehow they know. As I mentioned last week, after being reminded that we don’t have endless autumns in our lives I’m trying to relish the unfolding season and I’m embracing the sartorial turn. Cooler days feel so much better when you’re wearing clothes in the right colour that feel good next to the skin. So it’s time for a retail focus and a try-on today as I’m working with M&S – what’s in store for AW24?

M&S – what’s in store for AW24?

I’m starting with M&S because there’s so much going on there. As you know, I went through a period of not covering them on Midlifechic because, for a while, I felt their price:quality ratio was out of kilter. It’s particularly difficult when you’ve worked somewhere, it’s like supporting a sports team you’ve loved – you’re always rooting for them but you know when they could do better. And now, I’m pleased to say that they are.

Strategic thinking

So what is it that they’re getting so right? I’d say it’s that they’re starting with very good strategic thinking. In fact they’re probably one of only a few brands on the high street that I see working with intelligence and insight. The last few years have been the hardest that I’ve experienced since I started working in retail in 1993. The impact of the global lockdown has had such a massive reach and the aftershocks continue to rumble on. It isn’t just the changing of consumer lifestyles, it’s the far reaching effect that it had on the supply chain. Every single element of making a piece of clothing has had to be rethought and recosted – from things like zips and buttons through to the cloth, the countries where various pieces are sourced and made-up, the import/export infrastructure, the online/offline store balance… and so it goes on.

It means that a lot of retailers have been so busy focusing on the back-end of their business that the customer has almost been lost from sight. You’ll see product churning going on where bestsellers from past years are simply being rereleased in slightly different colours. That’s why it often feels as though there isn’t anything exciting to buy. However that isn’t the case at M&S. They’re innovating – and some of you have said recently that you think they’ve gone a bit too far but let’s think about it strategically.

In my view M&S is the one retailer where the buying and merchandising teams are actually working hand in hand with the marketing people whose job is to understand what the customer wants. And believe me this doesn’t happen often; as a marketer you’re regularly frustrated by the amount of realtime consumer insight that you present to the buying teams, only to see it overridden because they want to create a high street version of something they like on the catwalks. There’s such a delicate balance to be struck between echoing the trends and providing clothing that feels of its time but is, most importantly, wearable.

And this is what the team at M&S are doing well. They’re leading the new collection with a few fashion humdingers and supporting it with a curated range of solid pieces that you’ll wear again and again. This combination achieves three things:

1. It gets the fashion press talking
2. It gets the young in – and whether we like it or not (we don’t), youth approval gives any brand a glow-up
3. When we see a classic piece styled with a higher fashion item it throws new light on the safer piece, giving us new ways of wearing it that aren’t too outré. It helps us to look again at things we might otherwise pass by.

Stock management and ranging

So you see it’s all clever stuff and in addition to the jazz hands side of the strategy, there’s been some important footwork going on too. M&S have reduced the number of SKUs – that means the overall number of individual items of clothing that they stock. As a result it should be less confusing when you go in store, you should no longer feel as if you’re faced with a sea of endless versions of the same thing. It also enables them to place bigger orders on the frontline pieces which:

1. helps to keep prices down
2. should avoid some of the sell-out issues of last season where they were victims of their own success on things like the brilliant palazzo jeans

I spent quite a bit of time in store last week and I’ve concluded that right now there isn’t another retailer that’s matching them on this level of price:quality ratio. From what I can see they’re working on the classic good|better|best strategy: the core product is the M&S range with Autograph layered above it and then Jaeger at the top. M&S bought Jaeger in 2021 and it looks as though they have finally worked it into position at the highest end of their product mix.

This enables them to bring similar pieces in at different price:quality points – so a high trend orange jumper in the mainline is made from an easy care blend at a lower price…

Soft touch orange jumper

… and in cashmere at a higher one. They’re creating a store environment that spans ages and income brackets democratically.

Cashmere jumper (lots of colours available)

Textile innovation

Another behind the scenes project is the work that they’re doing on textile innovation. There’s no denying the fact that one of the huge problems that retailers face is that it’s getting more and more expensive to produce clothing from natural fibres. The cost then has to be passed on to customers with the retailer’s margin applied. In a cost of living crisis, a lot of people just don’t have the disposable income that they did to absorb these increases. And so the only way around it is to work on fabric blends (you can read about their sustainability considerations here). It helps to keep the cost down and it can also make clothes last longer because they wear harder and they’re easier to wash. M&S have been doing a lot of work on this and you can really see it in some of the wool blends, the faux leather and furs.

Understanding what the customer really wants

In an earlier M&S post this year, I introduced you to the Womenswear Director, Maddy Evans, who has been one of the leaders of the M&S fashion turnaround. She’s the kind of retailer I admire because she thinks from a customer-first perspective. This season she explains that M&S have found that their customer isn’t as conservative as the teams had always been led to believe – that in fact she has a strong appetite for leather, suede, sequins, trims and, in particular, colour. They’ve discovered this by using data intelligently, drilling down on how the customer behaves online, where she lingers, which pages she leaves open, where she gets lost. You’d think every retailer would do that these days but as I’ve already said, there’s very often a chasm between the side of the business that designs the clothes and the side that has to sell them.

The new collection that dropped at M&S last week is one of the only ones on the high street that’s made me feel invigorated by the season ahead. It’s the most optimistic version of autumn that I’ve seen, probably because it contains great bursts of colour and texture rather than the flat pond of beige and grey that I’m finding everywhere else. The design influence is coming from Lisa lllis, Head of Womenswear Design who, interestingly, has a background at Joseph. I feel that you can see this in the interpretation of catwalk design and yet she’s balanced it with an M&S wearability.

M&S – what’s in store for AW24 – the try-on

They invited me to have a play around with some of the clothes and put three outfits together my way so let me show you how I worked the new collection into my lifestyle. The first idea that I was drawn to was this but I couldn’t justify another trousersuit – I want to point it out to you though in case you can because the cut is sublime. Just look at the way the jacket fastens and it’s a green that you’d feel happy wearing all year round. You can really see the Joseph influence here – but it’s selling fast.

Jacket; trousers

However with my sensible head on I needed to think about working from home. So, I decided to go with the slim flared jeans that I showed you in my new season post a couple of weeks ago and style them in different ways.

Let’s talk about the jeans first. They’re particularly good for anyone who loved skinnies. They’re basically the same cut but with an updated flare at the bottom. This means that because they have a neat fit to the knee, you can wear them with the more oversized jumpers and tops that you wore with skinnies as well as neater top halves. The crease down the front saves them from veering too closely to a boot cut and yet they do work with heeled boots. I’d actually put all of mine into a bag for the charity shop but when I was styling these jeans I pulled them out again and found they had a new life. I’m wearing a 12 long in the jeans here and they need the heel for a bit of lift – if I wanted to wear them with trainers or flats, I’d go for the regular.

Slim flare jeans; tipped knitted vest; tipped cardigan; burgundy bag; pendant necklace; (M&S boots AW16)

Knitwear is what my wardrobe needs, the kind of thing that I can wear with jeans but still look smart in from the waist up for Zoom meetings. The one ban I’ve given myself this year is from buying any more navy jumpers so I loved this alternative neutral in a soft shade of brown that’s come straight from the catwalk. It has more depth for me than camel and it’s kinder to the skin tone. I absolutely love the white tipping at the collar of the tank top and the hem of the cardigan. You could wear the tank over a shirt or t-shirt too. It’s made from M&S’s air yarn which is a blended knit with a soft, plush finish. You’d never guess that it isn’t wool – it’s phenomenal for the price. If you prefer natural fibres though you can buy a cashmere cardigan and jumper in the same nutmeg shade.

I want to give a special mention to the accessories. The bag is made from faux leather, it’s soft and cushiony, the kind of finish that you see in designer ranges at the moment. And I just love the necklace – I’ve had my eye on one at Jigsaw that costs five times as much as this. The trend for fine necklaces and big earrings is just starting to wane so this statement piece is ahead of the curve and great for wearing over jumpers in the winter.

Slim flare jeans; tipped knitted vest; tipped cardigan; burgundy bag; pendant necklace; (M&S boots AW16)

Moving up a price point, here are the jeans with cashmere. As we discussed in the season round-up, shades of slightly ‘off’ green are key for AW24 and this jumper is particularly great because the colour will be just as strong when it comes to spring. I sized down to a 10 because I found the 12 sat just off my shoulder and didn’t have the clean line that I wanted. I always find that wearing a white tee under a round-necked jumper like this gives it a sporty pop, making it a little less classic. The bag is in a similar acid shade, a cost-effective way of bringing these greens into your winter capsule and brightening it up a bit.

I wanted to show you just how leg-lengthening these jeans are, if you’ve steered away from the super wide legs that are in, they’re a great alternative for a wardrobe update.

Cashmere jumper; jeans; bag

Here I’ve added a faux shearling bomber jacket. It’s a cosy option for the months ahead. I love a cream coat or jacket, it’s so much more uplifting than the usual dark outerwear colours you see around from November until April. This one is very oversized so I’m wearing a size 10 here and even an 8 was good – you just need to work things to the fit you prefer.

Coat; necklace; cashmere jumper; jeans; bag

And for my last outfit pairing I look a bit nervous but can you believe it was starting to snow? In September. It was light but bitterly cold and we just managed to get this picture before we retreated inside. The velvet jacket is such a beautiful colour, in fact this week top trend forecasting firm WGSN released it as colour of the year for 2026 – ‘transformative teal’ so it has longevity too.

I’m wearing it as they’ve styled it on-site with nothing underneath – I was intrigued to see if it was really a doable option. And actually you could get away with it – I checked that you could hold a drink and even bend over a table without flashing too much and you can. It’s a close, tailored cut so your modesty is preserved.

Velvet jacket; jeans; lariat necklace

I loved the colour so much that we popped into M&S the next day to buy the matching trousers and here they are, this time with a beaded scarf added which just gave a little more coverage in the bust area. As you’ll see in a minute I was very distracted by everything in store so Mal went off on a mission to find the trousers in a size 12. It didn’t occur to me that he wouldn’t think about the length so here I am in a size 12 short – a 12 regular would be the perfect fit and length!

This suit is such a great option for a party or a night out. I don’t know how they’ve managed to produce washable cotton velvet at this price but somehow they have and so with an added 2% stretch it feels lovely to wear (the jacket is dry clean only). The fit is very, very good – it must be the Joseph effect again. And the blazer even has a satin panel in the lapel for extra detail.

Velvet jacket; velvet trousers; beaded scarf (also available in black)

I just want to finish with a few quick pictures from my store visit to buy the velvet trousers on Friday. The Newcastle M&S was refurbished last year so everything there feels bright and shiny. You can see that they’re merchandising the floor to fit the ad campaign which makes it easy to find all of the key pieces with the styled accessories together. Here’s that fabulous green suit with a burgundy bag and the chocolate faux leather we were talking about a couple of weeks ago.

Jacket; trousers; burgundy bag | Faux leather top; faux leather midi-skirt; merino cardigan

A selection from the new jeans range – I bought two pairs of these patch pocket jeans in different washes over the summer (you’ll see them further down) and they’re so good that I’ve just ordered them to try in chocolate cord.

Wide leg jeans; Patch pocket flares; Wide leg cargo

Here’s the bomber jacket that you saw me wearing casually with jeans but styled in a block of winter white.

Bomber jacket; midi-skirt; merino roll neck

And I couldn’t resist trying the orange scarf as I walked past. I was thrilled to find that it’s a satsuma orange rather than jaffa as it looks on the website and so it’s much kinder to the skintone than I expected. I bought it.

Orange scarf; cashmere jumper; patch pocket jeans

And then I saw this cashmere vest with ivory tipping at the hem…

Orange vest top with tipping; patch pocket jeans

… and a matching tipped cardigan although I had to play around with the shoulder fit because it wasn’t quite right again in a size 12…

Orange tipped cardigan; matching vest; patch pocket jeans

… so I bought the vest in a 12 and the cardigan in a size 10. Here are the patch pocket jeans by the way. Reviews say they come up small so I bought a size 14 regular but I warn you, like most denim they give a bit so they’re loose now. My usual 12 would have been better in the long run.

Orange tipped cardigan; matching vest; patch pocket jeans

And so I now have an autumn wardrobe refreshed with colours that all work together – denim, soft orange, teal, chocolate and apple green. It’s great to see M&S excelling. There’s a strong focus on basics with little added details, all made incredibly well. Exactly what we’ve been saying we want from them for so long.

That’s it for today, I’m on the move next week so I’ll be back with a try-on from another great retailer on Tuesday rather than Friday. And tomorrow we’re taking the youngest back to Leeds for the start of his final year – the last time we’ll ever do a university drop-off. Life just keeps marching on!

Disclosure: the try-on was commissioned by M&S. Retail analysis and insight is my own. M&S – what’s in store for AW24? 

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