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I agree with Liz Jones, the leading Lady M&S collection is shocking

102 replies

GossamerHailfilter · 05/04/2014 22:28

A real shower of shite

Nothing looks good at all here

And does Emma Thompson have awful posture or is it just the picture?

OP posts:
StickyProblem · 06/04/2014 11:09

I saw the photo in a bigger M&S than I usually get to this week, and I too couldn't believe how awful Alex Wek, Emma Thompson and particularly Annie Lennox look. I'm so glad Liz did this!

Why do the straps on Annie's shoes bag? (they don't bag on Liz)

Is Rita Ora wearing a fleece gilet?

I'm fat and 45 and the perfect target for M&S and I'll keep looking in there all my life, but they do keep getting it incredibly wrong.

The most noticeable thing about this range is the massively inflated prices. Hello, it's still M&S, they'll have to do a good job persuading me I need to spend £100 on a pair of sandals instead of the usual £35 that M&S charge.

MarshaBrady · 06/04/2014 11:14

It's bizarre. If you're one if the biggest names in photography you'd think feeling uncomfortable wouldn't be part of it.

Perhaps it's that US thing where she thinks we love 'quirky'.

Mumzy · 06/04/2014 11:26

That Alek dress looks like something I once made when I was 14 without using a pattern

TheGrassIsSinging · 06/04/2014 11:26

They all looks so uncomfortable.

Aleks Wek, a high fashion model, looks like...ur...a high fashion model wearing awful M&S clothes. How have they managed that?

They have dressed Doreen Lawrence in just about the most unflattering outfit one could think of, and aged Annie Lennox and Emma Thompson (both gorgeous, spunky women). They look exactly like what they are - amazing women wearing horrible, dodwy M&S clothes.

LilyRose88 · 06/04/2014 12:02

Jeez those clothes are awful. I do occasionally find something nice in M&S - usually a dress for work, or a pair of shoes - but they really do need to up their game. How could a stylist think that any of those clothes looked good on the women modelling them. And I agree, Liz Jones actually looks better than the women in the ad, and she look pretty dreadful in them!

FrugalFashionista · 06/04/2014 12:26

I think that if you can make a bunch of actors and pop stars look like middle school teachers you are really on to something...

Emma Thompson is an example what happens if you don't dress your shape. She looks like a quarterback Wink

Minimalism is really tricky. It leaves no room for errors and only works well if the raw materials are superb. Thin viscose - I don't think so... In the US, though, there are lots of bland brands for Middle Americans and they do things like white tees, polo shirts and khakis really well. M&S used to know how to excel in basics but they have really lost that.

ExitPursuedByABear · 06/04/2014 12:28

I am ridiculously disappointed in Annie Lennox.

Apatite1 · 06/04/2014 12:52

Oh dear. It's all very very bad. Doreen Lawrence looks absolutely horrible. They can't even dress fashion models right, Doreen had no chance. Rita ora looks the worst I've ever seen her. Annie looks 105. Even the gorgeous Rachel Khoo is doing all white wrong. The shoes are particularly vomit inducing.

Financeprincess · 06/04/2014 13:08

Another one sick of the sight of Rita Ora here. Who do M&S think she's going to appeal to? The girls in The Valleys (MTV, Welsh knock-off of Geordie Shore but even more bonkers...I love it) aspire to be like her, but M&S customers don't!

We had a great laugh in the office at Emma Thompson's posing though.

I think they put Alek Wek in the wrong frock. She's gorgeous, of course, but she's very thin. It might (I stress, might) have looked better on somebody a bit bigger.

Who is in charge of M&S womenswear now? It seems to be a revolving door. They appointed Janie Schaffer (Knickerbox founder) to be in charge of underwear last year but she left after a few months because of 'creative differences'. Perhaps she was told that she had to use a minimum of 75% microfibre and polyester, or something.

FrugalFashionista · 06/04/2014 13:11

Slightly OT...
Marsha are you thinking about the AL / Lena Dunham photos? I had to buy that issue and found the pics exotic, memorable, haunting but also somehow really stilted, artificial, overstyled. Kind of like she didn't really get Girls? (All about low key soft tones, no makeup and looking relatively natural.)

MarshaBrady · 06/04/2014 13:17

AL did the Kim K and Kanye West Vogue cover, I think? It's that one. So coy.

Kingsfold · 06/04/2014 13:21

Truly frightful on all counts.

polyhymnia · 06/04/2014 13:23

If I was one of the Doreen Lawrence, Annie Lennox, Emma Thompson trio I would never in a million years agreed to them using those photos of me - the one of them in the restaurant or whatever looks like three old frumps who have no taste. Surely not the image they'd want to project.

As for the clothes, I've stopping expecting any better from M and S sadly.

Annianni · 06/04/2014 13:24

I was stood outside m&s yesterday, trying to guess who they all were.
It's an awful campaign.

And wtf is Rita Ora doing in it?

FrugalFashionista · 06/04/2014 13:38

OT again...

Oh no, that cover was hers??? It was so bland it could be Brides magazine... Liked much more the pics inside (some here) but her signature style somehow makes me think about high mannerism (Bronzino) / early baroque. I love those periods, but it's all about very contrived and exaggerated poses, cold cerebral perfection. And has nothing to do with K&K Wink

MarshaBrady · 06/04/2014 14:00

For some reason that famous baby photographer came into my mind. Ah.. Anne Geddes. I'm sure that's not the response she is after.

ZenGardener · 06/04/2014 14:06

I got an email the other day from M&S about dressing like Emma Thompson and thought WTF? I agree the clothes look awful.

I heard Rita Ora would be in the 50 Shades film.

FrugalFashionista · 06/04/2014 14:08

My mother loves those Grin but I don't think AL would feel flattered.
End of OT Wink back to knicker 5-packs...

MarshaBrady · 06/04/2014 14:10

No me either Grin

I just googled. Saw the cutest one.

FiscalCliffRocksThisTown · 06/04/2014 14:11

I think they know exactly what they are doing.

They are focussing on the comfort-driven over 65's. People live to an old age these days, they will have loyal customers wearing their elasticated trousers and boxy polyester blouses for decades yet.

We are not their target market.

It would be the same , say, someone who normally buys their clothes from the back pages of the Telegraph (similar to M&S) complain TopShop clothes are all not suitable for them.

MarshaBrady · 06/04/2014 14:11

Oh no scrap that, it isn't a real baby. A souvenir.

LondonNinja · 06/04/2014 14:31

Me, too Zen. I was bemused and a tad insulted!

GossamerHailfilter · 06/04/2014 14:39

In the picture when they are in the garden, Doreen Lawrence looks like she is planning her escape.

OP posts:
polyhymnia · 06/04/2014 14:43

But M and S are much more expensive than the things in the back if the Telegraph - quite apart from the fact that most women over 50, 60, or 65 wouldn't be seen dead in their stuff! There's not an age -related cut-off point for taste and style .

santamarianovella · 06/04/2014 15:06

anni I think that's the effect they are after Grin,

fiscal they are trying to lure younger people for ages now, tried doing clothes influnced by christopher baily desgins for burberry with no success,
I think even the over 60 wouldn't dress in any of the clothes in that campaign,they maybe getting old but they haven't lost their fashion sense yet!

M&S excelled in a time were there was very little competition,now the high street is taken by big foreign giants. (Zara,mango,h&m),
And for a better high street quality you get massimo dutti,and jaeger,who are doing brilliantly.
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