No Guesses This Time

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>> I was going to play the ol' "Guess What Store's Lookbook Image This Is" with this one but it's been so widely circulated and heavily published that the jig would be up in a matter of a few comments.  Also, if I was playing that game, I'd be giving the impression that there's something of an incredible and pleasant surprising feeling to be had once the guesses had been made…

It is a surprise.  Pleasant?  Questionable… 

These part-pleather/part-jersey leggings are from Marks & Spencer's limited collection.  I'm fully onboard with Marks & Spencer branching out seeing as they do have a variety of lines that all cater to different markets.  M&S are still in troubled times and people need to have some "blue sky thinking" (will Ian 'Little Chef' Pegler ever be able to live that down?) to get profits up yadda yadda yadda.  But, I must ask… are gunmetal fronted pleather, black jersey backed leggings reaching the right part of the sky?  Or is it… "orange sky thinking"?  i.e. just a bit uncomfortable to look at.

Just to be clear, I actually rather like them… but let's rewind and explain. Marks & Spencers is where I plod slowly with the boyf's nan in Westgate to look at cashmere and buy packets of runner beans.  It's where Steve's nan will promptly look for blouses with three quarter length sleeves and then she'll pressurise him to buy 2-for-1 polo shirts even though he'll banish them to the back of his closet.  If these pleather babies were on the rail, I'm not sure what sort of a reaction it would illicit on nan whilst on her routinely slow-plod through M&S… and when sitting next to coral cashmere, mid-calf skirts and school uniform, I'd get the sudden urge to laugh uncomfortably and say "Aahahaa… what are these doing here?  They must have shipped some rails in from Topshop by accident!"  I'd then take them and shove them in the changing room in slapstick fashion.  And then she'd laugh uncomfortably and we'd then steer her away to the sausage rolls which she dearly loves.***

Yet despite that initial thought… I do rather like them…

***Apologies for the paragraph that ensued up to the asterisk.  A good example of when mind diarrhea goes horribly wrong…

Mslimited

17 comments

  3. I think the thing with M&S is that almost all of their shops will only carry the “safe” mumsy clothing. I would be very surprised to find those leggings in Westgate, for instance. The more “fashionable” lines are exclusive to certain large stores like Marble Arch and also online. I happened to be in the Marble Arch branch yesterday with my mum, and we agreed it was one of the few places on Oxford Street where we could both find lots of things we liked. The quality is very good as is the pricepoint. It’s one of the few places I can happily buy office wear that my boss approves of, that has fashion quirk that I like too. And I’m often complimented on clothes I wear from Marks and Sparks, people tend to be surprised when they find out where I shop. I found some great accessories (for me!) in their menswear department too.

  5. i love it. i have a total soft spot for m&s.. mostly becuse they have the best licorice all sorts, and a couple of bras i loved to pieces. (do they go together? yikes) but i also love how as a company they plan on going carbon neutral… it may be troubled times from now, but in a lot of ways they’re a company to watch.

  6. The new two tone tights at Topshop are pretty gag too.
    I get visions of my older cousin in the early nineties wearing two toned tights with a matching shirt and me silently groaning in the back of my 7 year-old brain.
    I like that they’re trying to branch out because, lets face it, they have too eventually but they don’t seem to be hitting the right notes just yet.

  8. mmmm..m&s mini chocolatey bites…. mmmmmm
    M&S reminds me of cake, sausage rolls (yay steve’s nan!) underwear and tartan frocks with smocking and poofy sleeves that I wore as a 3-7 year old.
    Poor old M&S. Everyone associates them with something, and its not normally gareth pugh… and its hard for them to branch away from their (ageing clientele/lingerie and last minute funeral attire) association without isolating existing customers.
    Having said that, their advertising has improved remarkably since the noughties kicked in!

  9. Excellent post. Congrats from a Paris-based Frenchwoman who always visits M&S each time I’m in the UK (especially since we no longer have M&S in France).

  11. You clearly don’t do M&S often enough! I have had some amazing stuff from there over the years. Marni, Dries Van Noten inspired stuff, dresses with biker style zips, brilliant spikey shoes, chunky jewellery. I never fail to chack out M&S when I’m in town, it’s a great shop. I also saw they were doing a version of the All Saints draped leather jacket I have which is, in turn, a version of a Rick Owens jacket.

  12. I agree with DJM, I really rate M&S for the quality despite the cheapness. They do all the basic stuff but better, and I pretty regularly find something quite beautiful and surprising in the Limited Collection. I am over spending £30 on a vest from Topshop and am more into things with detail and draping and I really recommend Marks for that, especially if you can’t get to a Cos.

  14. That’s the thing! I know all this stuff exists…it just completely warps my own personal plod plod trippin’ through M&S and impregnates funny visions into my brain which shouldn’t be there…
    I’m also attracted to a lilac leather dress that they have from their A/W 09 collection….

  15. Pah, mind diarrhoea (I have a horrible feeling I spelt that wrong but oh well..) is the new stream of consciousness. I love it!

  17. seeing panelled leggings everywhere, i think i read on the black milk blog that it;’s easier to do as you cna have a panel of tough material and use something stretchy for the other to make them fit?

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