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

[GossamerHailfilter]

A real shower of shite

Nothing looks good at all here

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

I was in a store today and it looks just as dreadful IRL as it does in print.

Its all so frumpy and weird.
I'm 30 so M+S should be selling me work basics.
Grey wool trousers, shell tops for under suits, good quality knitwear etc.
Good basics I can mix with H+M and Zara to look professional.

I did a quick lap of the M+S in MK yesterday and was baffled by the selection. So I trotted off to John lewis and spent money.

well, I just placed a Boden order.
After looking in M&S and only buying tights there.

I hate the way they have Dame Doreen slightly and awkwardly clutching a bag like a frightened pensioner in that outside shot. She is strong and inspirational and the shot makes her look dithery. I find it quite upsetting.

Yes and I also agree the one where Emma Thompson has her arm around Alek Wek is really unfortunate. I am sure ET did not mean it to look weird or patronising at all but it does. It's just a bad pic.

It's as if (much as with their actual clothing design), nobody involved had their finger on the pulse enough to say "NO not this shot, do another".

The photos of the actual 'leading ladies' wearing the stuff, highlights one of M&S's main problems - that their clothes look shit on 'real' women. Take that red lacy dress off Kate Moss or Twiggy and shove it on Doreen Lawrence, who is the perfect demographic for an M&S customer and you see what's going wrong.

Mind you, in this case they've managed to come up with stuff that even looks shit on super models and hipster famous 'artistes' like Rita Ora with model figures.

I was looking at the length of the baco-foil monstrosity they've bunged on Alek Wek, who is around 5' 11". If it's mid calf length on her then an average height woman, would need a bridesmaid to hold up the excess fabric trailing on the floor.

What a random looking mess it all is.

As others have said before - if they produced simple basic clothes in quality non-synthetic fabrics they would clean up.

I want people to think "ooh is frilly's shirt from j crew?" Not "aargh frilly likes per una"

Listen M and S - I am a slim(ish) 55 year old woman. I like nice clothes. I would never ever wear polyester trousers or plastic shoes.

I remember a few months backi liked the look of their heritage collection items but did not have the budget (and I often shop at my-wardrobe!). Anyway I got some vouchers and thought I'd pop to my local store. It was full of ladies in their seventies and eighties also looking not very impressed. It seems the good stuff is only on the website. I got some ankle grazer jeans from there but for a skirt I'd really like to be able to try it on as the fit has to be perfect. All the advert stuff that looks appealing is never in the shops.

It is astonishing when you see what supermarket stores like Tesco et al are managing to do with their clothing lines that a company like M & S can get it so horribly wrong. The sad thing is that people will still be buying from them so they can complacently convince themselves that they are getting it right. (probably not a good time to admit that I bought a turquoise per una cord jacket in a charity shop yesterday )

I never even THINK of going into M&S now and have bought undies for JL recently. If I do go to M&S ever ( it would be Marble Arch flagship) I end up depressed and can't find the exit quickly enough.

M & S totally fail to realise that we don't want people to know it came from M & S.

We want them to supply the good quality basics and then dress it up from elsewhere.

Last time I was there I couldn't even find a decent pair of black trousers. Either the material was horrible or the style was horrible.

Know your market.

The m&s near me is an uninspiring place. It's not a main posh branch so I guess they bung stuff in there ad hoc and hope for the best.

It looks like an upmarket jumble sale with racks of mixed up clothes which look at first glance like they must be sale items but actually aren't.

There are also rails and rails of dullsville navy and black trousers. Rails of them. I wonder if they go there to die

They managed to make Annie Lennox so frumpy! They just get worse don't they?

Actually the three ladies on the right look a bit confused about the whole thing

Runningonwillpower you are SO right. I don't want to pay for an overpriced but good quality white tee shirt with long sleeves from a designer brand. I would like to buy one in m and s and wear it under an expensive jacket.

Why can't they understand that?

runningonwillpower and frillyflower Exactly! that's exactly it! And I will buy five of those perfect long sleeve Ts, and come back every year and buy another five! And I actually don't mind if they cost £10 more than they would at F&F/Primark/Top Shop, as long as they wash well, are made from decent material, don't twist, and are cut so classically they go on for a few seasons.

These self-congratulatory campaigns are actually irritating me now, purely because, as has been said so many times on this thread, it just demonstrates how little M&S is actually listening to its core customers about what they want. The core customers who are supposed to be buying this stuff.

I want them to succeed, though. M&S used to be great and they still have the odd thing that's good, although you often have to hunt for things online.

I ordered a skirt online from their Best of British range (why isn't the collection in the big stores? Manchester and Leeds didn't carry it) and it's great. £79 for lightweight, lined wool, woven by a British mill, in a chic, modern pattern and shape. What's not to like? You'd pay more for a polyester Reiss skirt.

I also got some lovely light wool trousers, online again, earlier this year and I've had some good bits from Limited Edition.

Shame they didn't put any of that in their ad! Alek Wek would have looked fab in some of the Best of British stuff.

I thought the Leading Lady ad was an April Fool! How to get it completely wrong.

In fact if they produced these I would buy them all over and over again:

Perfect t shirts with long sleeves not too high neck good quality cotton thin enough to layer.

A skinny cut jersey blazer in various colours - nice colours though like grey and navy and black not puce and completely simple no bows or frills.

Lightweight wool trousers with side pockets slim fitting no gathers and should be long or cropped

Pretty cotton underwear

Simple silk tunic dress with side pockets and sleeves or armholes wide enough to wear t shirt under

God yes will someone make some long-bodied, fine-knit yet good quality, round (not tiny crew) neck t-shirts in nice, subtle colours, maybe some nice, subtle stripes or contrasting edging, but also a good range of plain colours, choice of short or long sleeve please, and that do not go weird in the wash. And keep making them over and over again without messing with them, and then I would keep buying them.

Boden you're almost there but they aren't long enough and you always feel the need to include at least 5 garish colour choices so if we don't want bright we are left with navy or black.

Finance that's interesting about the skirt and best of British range.

I wanted to buy some of the range online but I didn't have enough faith in the brand any more and couldn't be faffed with ordering something and risk having to return so I didn't bother.

They could have stocked in more stores surely?

Their marketing department should be watching this thread.

But when will they start to listen ?
Their profits have been plummeting for a good few years now & people have been making the same complaints about the clothes in all that time, over & over again. They just need to listen to what people who despair at the way things are going have been saying, even giving them virtual shopping lists of what they would buy. Don't they care?

Even if they're aiming all this frumpy stuff at the over 65s they've got it very badly wrong. My DM is in her seventies & doesn't buy any of it, nor her friends. She's always been a very stylish dresser, high street not designer as she couldn't afford that, & that hasn't changed just because she's got a few more years & inches under her belt. She doesn't want frills & droopiness, any more than she wants mini skirts, but she does still want elegant simple clothes in good quality fabric.
I used to buy quite a lot from M&S, especially woollen suits for work, tops, casuals for weekend. Now I'm walking round with a couple of hundred pounds worth of gift vouchers I was given for Christmas & still can't find anything I want to spend them on.

Clothing sales slightly up the past quarter according to figures published today:

www.theguardian.com/business/2014/apr/10/marks-and-spencer-clothing-sales-recover

I went into M&S the other day because a couple of years ago i bought some nude 'no vpl' knickers' really impressed as they actually looked pretty (for 'no vpl' nude knickers!) and a good colour match for my existing nude bras. Not so lucky this time,what they did have was in a strange brown colour and so so ugly! Walked straight out again.