To think that the decline of M&S began with the introduction of Per Una range...

[Blowin]

I mean it all just went so downhill from then on....imo.

was it the john lewis own label?

But someone is wearing it

I've just had a look at the Per Una range online. I occasionally have a look in the shop, but never buy anything cos it's all so frumpy, badly cut and godawful colours. Per una online is awful.
Lots of vile patterns, unflattering cuts, ghastly colours...even the svelte model looks shapeless in many photos cos the clothes are cut badly, designed to flatter noone.
Listen up M&S:
Ankle skimming skirts with kick pleats suit nobody.
Loud, patterned tops might be 'on trend' but if they're cut like a sack, they won't sell.
mushy pea green and baby poo yellow don't look good on ANY skin tone.

Per Una baffles me.

seriously, who would buy this skirt:
m.marksandspencer.com/mt/www.marksandspencer.com/Per-Una-Textured-Long-Skirt/dp/B002I6HNJ0?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_122&nodeId=72939031&sr=1-122&qid=1366900597&pf_rd_r=0PH1RPEZPQ2XK53E755C&pf_rd_m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=72939031&pf_rd_p=321381387&pf_rd_s=related-items-3

I still haven't got over that awful jumper/top thing tat someone posted. Was it made up of left overs?

I don't think I've ever bought anything apart from food or kids school uniform from M&S

I have a look in there every now and then, but never find anything I like.

I'm 37, I have some cash to spend, I love clothes and fashion, but I don't want to look like my mum.

Everything just seems slightly frumpy to me. Even basics like jeans, they seem to do something to them to frump them up a bit

I find Next is the same at the moment too

I have a question for m and s experts!
I have a credit receipt but it can't be used online so I've ordered some wellies for my dd to be sent to a local store for collection.
I had to pay for the wellies online.

When I collect do you think I will be able to get a refund for them, then pay with my credit note?

The PerUna stuff is so long you have to be 6' to wear it - the skirts would just drag along the floor on me ( not that I'd wear them anyway)

But, isn't Per Una the only bit of womenswear that sells?

Love markies especially food and some of the clothes I actually liked a maxi dress that someone posted on here as a bad example!!! but agree per una a bit off at the moment and will they sort out homewear lovely stuff but put it all together in rooms like Next do then we can visualizein U it and not have to do all the work ourselves. Really hoping someone from M and S is on mumsnet, but I still luffs it, my daughter who lives in Spain, at the moment, says it feels like she's arrived home when she visits obvs spent too much time there when younger

Also, whoever does the styling for their website is terrible at it.

For example:
m.marksandspencer.com/mt/www.marksandspencer.com/Per-Una-Roma-Denim-Jeans/dp/B003BAHZW2?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_3&nodeId=47862031&sr=1-3&qid=1366902996&pf_rd_r=0SH7ND7A5YYYHKBN9RYJ&pf_rd_m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=47862031&pf_rd_p=321381387&pf_rd_s=related-items-3

Standard pair of straight legs jeans, probably exactly the same as the pair of Levi straight leg jeans I bought in TK Maxx last week. I don't know what M&S do to them, but they just make them look awful and I just wouldn't buy them

those jeans are too short, worn with the wrong footwear. Don't like the colour either. Colour is something M&S consistently fail at.

I went off to my sewing class this morning. I'm 47 and the youngest out of all of us. Oldest is about 70.

None of us have bought anything in M&S for several years, apart from food and socks.

So - if Per Una etc isn't for the 'young' (which it plainly isn't) - it ain't for the 'old' either!

Oh, M&S Listen up!!!

My Mum buys stuff in Per Una. She is in her 70's size 16/18 and generally looks ver nice when she goes to play bridge with the ladies.

It has long been my theory that M & S cut their trouser patterns around an extra large parsnip. How else to get that particular shape?

I remember the launch of Per Una too - I've still got a pair of wide leg trousers and a gorgeous long black skirt from the first collection. It actually looked really stylish in the stores, barely a ruffle in sight. But it's the curse of M&S that they do one good season of a new range and then the designer leaves after the launch, and it goes off the cliff of taste faster than you can say Seasonal Reductions. Same thing happened with Portfolio, Autograph, Indigo...

[looks sadly at lovely DvF-esque Portfolio wrap dress and amazing jacket]

Wish they still did plain, simple designs in childrenswear, instead of everything having to have a cartoon on it.

I have a few lovely Per Una skirts and tops from when it was first introduced.
But mostly these days the patterns make it look like someone was sick on the clothes.

I saw this lovely (I thought) dress on a mannequin yeterday when I was coming out if the food section.
Watercolour Print Shift
But the closer I got, the weirder it looked.
You need to watch the video to experience the awfulness of it.
It makes a very slim model look huge on top. A la humpty dumpty.
Its a shift dress, with some sort of drapey bits from the shoulder to the peplum.
If they had that dress, in a limited edition, without the drapey stuff, it would be lovely.

I think their decline started way back in the early nineties when they failed to see the significance of the credit card revolution. While everyone else was embracing the convenience of credit cards M&S insisted you either pay cash, cheque or apply for their in-store card. As a Uni student that put me right off.

They then failed to realise that high street fashion is dictated by the big name fashion houses. People who don't want to pay Prada, D&G, Armani, etc. prices still want to wear the trends and shops that specialise in copying these trends with a very quick turnover of extremely current styles (Zara) were overnight hits on the high street. M&S seems to insist on doing its own thing design wise which inevitably leaves them way behind the curve.

The rot started for me years ago when they stopped doing between size jeans, I was a 9, still am, rubbish at sewing and sick of having to pay to have stuff altered. I am oddly loyal though (probably because we've got a few shares and love their food) and do occasionally rake the acres of synthetic fibres. Like many others I find everything's either too fancy, cheap fabric or doesn't fit. They should tap into the concerns of those who can still be bothered to express them. Can anyone forward this thread to their HQ?

One of their issues is stock management, they don't know what they have. Before xmas (last time I went in M&S) I placed an order online for instore collection to be informed later that the order was missing an item - ok, it happens. However, I had to walk through most of the store, up a flight of stairs, to get to the Click&Collect pickup point (have they not considered putting it near the carpark?) and in doing so, walked past the item my order was missing... how is that possible? How does the store not know what stock it has? Did they simply not check to see if items missing from online orders could be fulfilled from the store the order was being collected from?

I did put in a complaint, got the usual sort of reply I suspect. Hope they did really look into it, as if they are to offer Click&Collect they have to have that working well and have to have stock management sorted out.

I do hope that someone who works for M and S is reading this thread or can forward all these comments to their HQ. It isnt rocket science, their profits are plummeting, and it would be so straightforward to address it and remedy it.

those jeans are too short, worn with the wrong footwear. Don't like the colour either. Colour is something M&S consistently fail at.

That's the root of it though isn't it.

M&S take something as simple and basic as a pair of jeans, and completely cock it up. If they can't even get something as basic as the cut, length, colour of a simple pair of jeans right, and then to style them so terribly on their website, is there any wonder they're struggling?