I listened to a BoF podcast the other week about the state of digital advertising. It kind of revealed what I suspected, they're tossing way more money at it than before and getting less in return. It's really hard to break through and make an impact, I suspect the whole story telling thing is an attempt at this but considering I only became aware of this Collab by walking past the shop not sure it worked...
Interestingly the brands that were doing really well in terms of social media impact according to that podcast are all super colourful and peppy positive (I think they mentioned Alice and Olivia which I thought was just a tkmaxx only brand 
).
The Simon Miller fabric choices were really random, some good, some atrocious. No consistency, the crochet stuff was intriguing though. It was already getting pushed last year (though primarily in cream) but no one seemed to buy it, now it's colourful but going by the podcast I feel like it's a last ditch attempt. I tried on a black crochet dress out of curiosity though and was surprised at how much I liked it, even with just wearing underwear underneath it didn't feel super naked. I grabbed the wrong size though as it looked so small on the hanger but it stretches out loads so it was a bit baggy in places. I didn't love it enough to go back and change sizes and subject myself to the overheated changing rooms again but I'll keep an eye out for a higher quality version. The Mango one was quite a dull black colour and I suspect that how it's crocheted (sp?) with differing patterns/density also will enhance the overall look of it.
This summer the main push on the high street seems to be strapless tops and dresses though. I don't know, I loved it the first time round, it works well for me, but there's just no wearing it in a new or new to me way this time to make it exciting.