Is it cool to wear M&S clothes now?

Is it cool to wear M&S clothes now?

"I'm the first person to be like, 'It's from M&S, you need to get on to it,'" Farron Clark, a 26-year-old brand strategist, tells me. She says it is now officially cool to buy clothes from the high street retailer.

According to Clark and others on social media, Marks and Spencer is becoming the go-to place for women under 35, while still pleasing its main older customer base.

"For a long time M&S had this fusty reputation - it was less valued by younger people," says Chioma Nnadi, head of editorial content at British Vogue, who tells the BBC there is now a "fresh energy around the brand".

That fresh energy is being matched by a new marketing approach, including the company’s first-ever London Fashion Week show on Friday, which featured a collection of outfits drawn from the brand's archive.

So how is M&S drawing in and keeping a younger generation of shoppers in a fiercely competitive market? The BBC attended the catwalk show and spoke to experts to find out.

Ahead of the event at the Design Museum, the company's head of womenswear design, Lisa Illis, says they wanted to do this because of the "immediacy of seeing something and being able to own it and wear it, rather than waiting six months".

For many people, M&S is more closely associated with pig-shaped sweets than with cutting-edge fashion, but its runway of 43 womenswear and 10 menswear looks went a long way toward convincing people that the latter is where its real strength lies.

Fashion Week is usually about previewing what you will wear six months later, but this runway was packed with colder-weather looks, from luxurious faux fur jackets and wrist cuffs to satin jumpsuits and dresses in deep navy, burgundy and brown.

The catwalk included a broad mix of models across age, size and gender, showing the brand's aim to appeal to a wide audience.

But there was clearly a deliberate push to catch the attention of younger shoppers with a fashion-forward take on Christmas party basics such as sequinned dresses, tasselled skirts and sheer lace tops.

Illis says the retailer has been concentrating on "newer styles and relevant trends" to win over younger customers.

She says this has been done without sacrificing quality, which is what keeps M&S's core audience loyal.

"They have created a modern version of everything we know and love - cashmere staples, knitwear and the lingerie department," says Nnadi.

Clark agrees that M&S has been getting "funnel neck [styles] and barrel jeans, which are filtering down from high fashion".

M&S may also have been lucky to refresh its image at a time when shopping habits are shifting, as younger consumers think about buying capsule wardrobes - a smaller set of staple items that can be styled in many different ways.

Clark says the appeal of wear-it-once fast fashion has faded as people "are looking for [foundational pieces] to rotate".

Perrie Sian, one of Britain's biggest fashion influencers, has noticed the same thing. The 34-year-old tells the BBC: "The real height of fast fashion is behind us".

"As a group we've changed our shopping habits and M&S slots into that," she says. "In my content and with lots of other creators we're showing people how to wear things in multiple ways, how to look after them."

She added that she is seeing "people are willing to spend a little bit more" on wardrobe staples and items that "wash well and are made of cotton, not acrylic or polyester".

M&S struggled during the Covid pandemic, but returned to growth in 2022-2023, with its fashion, home and beauty market share rising to 9.6%.

That rose again in 2023-2024 to 10%, and to 10.5% in 2024-2025.

But the business suffered a major setback in 2025 because of a cyber attack, which left shoppers unable to use its website and app and also affected stock in stores.

That means M&S's fashion, home and beauty market share now stands at 10.2%, external, for 2025-26.

Nnadi says M&S has been investing heavily in its stores in recent years, focusing on "accessible luxury" with spaces that feel "welcoming, new and fresh".

Clark has noticed that too.

"Getting an iced coffee and having a walk around M&S with my friends is the perfect Saturday," she says. "My generation do so much sitting on our phones, so an in-person experience becomes a bit of an activity."

According to Sian, M&S has also taken "more risks" lately, helping it "create viral moments", including a pit-lane fashion show at this year's F1 British Grand Prix and collaborations with British designers and creators.

"I'm seeing on Instagram or TikTok somebody say, 'Oh my goodness, this faux leather jacket is from M&S and it looks like it's £500 from the runway.'

"And what am I doing? I'm hop, skip, jumping into my car and getting straight to my local M&S to hunt it down," Sian jokes. "They have embraced young designers like Marco Capaldo, the founder and creative director of 16Arlington," adds Nnadi.

"And the Aries collab was genius and unexpected - it's a brand that has a lot of fashion kudos and is very British in its aesthetic but represents a younger vision of what British cool looks like," she says.

Clark agrees the brand has "homed in on experts in their craft, rather than partnering with a million different people" like other fashion brands have made the mistake of doing.

She points to their recent partnership with Stormzy's stylist Melissa Holbrook-Akposoe, who goes by Melissa's Wardrobe on social media, as "adding credibility" for younger shoppers.