Discover the history of clothing design at M&S
This exhibition explores the design department’s creative process, how our designers have been influenced and the place of M&S in the wider design industry. From Parisian print designs to archive-inspired knitwear, we’ll take a look at how M&S has dressed the nation for almost a century.
We first began selling clothing in the 1920s as the demand for quality, affordable clothing increased.
Our drapery department opened in 1926 selling clothing, lingerie and childrenswear. Few design-related records survive from this time. Rather than designing garments in-house, we purchased directly from manufacturers, with little flexibility.
A quote from a 1946 staff magazine gives an insight into the early buying process: ‘In the old days, the buyers of women’s dresses were shown by the manufacturers a range of garments in a variety of prints and styles. Their only choice was to take them or leave them
As our clothing ranges grew in popularity in the 1930s, the business recognised the importance of good design and wanted to ensure they kept abreast of current trends.
Scientist Dr Eric Kann joined the business in 1935 – though responsible for textile technology, he saw technology and design as inseparable, and so was instrumental in setting up a central Design Department in 1936, followed by the Print Design Department in 1939.
In the 1940s our designs and garment patterns were either produced in-house or sourced on buying trips to Paris. Once prints had been agreed, the fabric was produced and given to the manufacturers to make up a small ‘experimental’ order – a few dozen dresses that were trialled in select stores. The garments that sold well would be put into wider production and stocked in more stores.
Hans Schneider joined M&S in 1949 as Head of Womenswear. A former refugee from Vienna, he was hired to upgrade merchandise following wartime restrictions.
Under his direction our Design Department expanded rapidly – from just eight people in 1949, to over 70 by 1967. The team included print designer Elisabeth Tomalin, whose work on printed textiles contributed to the success of womenswear in the 1950s. By the 1960s the department worked a year in advance, every one of the designers was also a technician and fully qualified as a cutter.
Hans Schneider was born in Austria in 1910. He spent some time working in a knitwear factory in Vienna and came to England in 1934. Before joining M&S he worked in fashion production and buying for various manufacturers and retailers, as well as designing stage costumes for the Glyndebourne opera house.
Elisabeth Tomalin was born in 1912 in Dresden, she studied art and design until working conditions became too difficult for a young Jewish professional. She arrived in England in 1934, and joined M&S in 1949. As Head of Textile Design, she was responsible for all fabric designs and colourways. She visited suppliers and like Hans, visited couture shows in Paris and Milan.
Garment designs were also submitted by manufacturers who had their own design departments. Clothing ranges would include a combination of our own designs, and those of our suppliers.
In 1967 90% of lingerie designs and 75% of skirt designs were created in-house, whilst up to 40% of dress designs would have been developed from ideas submitted by manufacturers like Corah, who had their own design room working on garments for M&S.
In 1970 we worked with Corah to open their Design and Development Centre, supporting a team of 50 garment and fabric designers. Our Assistant Director Michael Sieff visited the new facility and described it as a ‘designer’s dream come true’.
By 1996 we had 30 in-house designers working on clothing and home, and our top six suppliers employed 270 designers between them, working solely on designs for M&S.
As early as the 1930s our designers were taking inspiration from across the world.
Fabric designs were bought direct from Paris studios, it was said that ‘business could be very much stimulated by the introduction of really genuine designs, produced by a Paris artist’.
In the 1950s and 1960s Head of Design Hans Schneider was very open about his influences. He and the team travelled to Paris, Switzerland and Italy in search of ideas, and to the twice yearly shows of Dior, Givenchy and other couturiers. These visits helped shape themes for upcoming seasons. As well as inspiring our in-house designs, we also bought designs that were then tweaked for an M&S audience. Closer to home, although Hans was keen to distance M&S from ‘pop-fashion’, he visited Carnaby Street and the Kings Road ‘to catch the atmosphere’.
Visiting international couture shows was still an important part of our designers’ process, but as M&S expanded internationally, designers tapped into a new international network.
In the 1990s the design team worked closely with our international office for Clothing and Homeware: ‘The team researches and forecasts the major fashion statements 14 months ahead of the selling season, using the knowledge of its internationally experienced designers’. The team had a network of design consultants including Paul Smith and Betty Jackson. Designers visited international fabric trade shows, and the business subscribed to trend-prediction organisations like Trend Union in Paris.
Betty Jackson began working with M&S in 1990 as a consultant on our womenswear ranges. In 1995 she said ‘I advise on the season’s major trends. I’m not into short-lived fashion fads, but there are important details each season which cannot be ignored. I want to help M&S to create a distinctive look that’s right fashion-wise and which reflects all its values of excellence’.
The M&S Archive is a unique source of inspiration. Design teams regularly visit to explore vintage garments and marketing materials to help inspire future collections.
To celebrate our 125th anniversary in 2009, designers explored the archive collection and created a collection of men’s and womenswear inspired by vintage pieces.
In 2016 we collaborated with author and model Alexa Chung who delved into the garment collection here at the Archive, discovering classic M&S design. She reinterpreted her favourite garments from the archive, including pieces inspired a 1940s man’s shirt and a 1930s satin dressing gown.
2021 saw the arrival of M&S Originals, a range of menswear inspired by the archive and designed in collaboration with our sustainability team. Our designers looked at garments including 1960s polo shirts, 1990s chunky knits and 1970s t-shirts, before reimagining them using the most responsible methods possible.
We’ve often collaborated with external designers – bringing in expertise and a new perspective.
In the 1950s we worked with designer Anny Blatt. Anny had founded her own Parisian haute-couture house in the 1930s, specialising in knitted woolen garments. She was able to advise M&S on upcoming trends and innovations in jerseywear and knitwear.
One the most long-running designer collaborations began in 1962 when Michael Donnellan joined the business as a consultant. Known as Michael of Carlos Place, he had headed the house of Lachasse in the 1940s, before running his own couture house. Journalist Beryl Hartland commented ‘The rich woman goes to Michael for his elegance, beautiful making and scissoring; the not so rich get his know-how, too, in clothes from Marks & Spencer.’
We employed Bruce Oldfield as a womenswear consultant in 1988. Collaborations and consultancies since then have included Julien Macdonald, Hussein Chalyan, Patricia Field and Zandra Rhodes, as well as collaborations with famous faces including Twiggy and Alexa Chung as mentioned earlier.
In 1969, we enlisted designer Sidney Brent as menswear consultant.
Brent owned the Take Six boutiques in London, and the Brent and Collins shops outside of London. His role was to advise on the creation of a more trend-led collection in menswear. Our suiting ranges were improved when Italian tailor Angelo Vitucci became consultant in the 1970s. Vittucci’s ability to translate extremes of fashion into elegant tailoring made him a good fit for M&S.
1999 saw the launch of the Sartorial suiting range designed by tailor Timothy Everest. The range was the start of a long partnership with Everest who would later design the suits M&S provided for the England football and rugby teams.
Encouraging new talent has always been important to the design team.
Hans Schneider was well-connected within the fashion industry and believed that new designers would have a more rewarding experience working at M&S than in haute couture. In 1958 he was appointed Chairman of the Examining Board at London College of Fashion, a role previously filled by couturiers Norman Hartnell and Digby Morton. This relationship would be two-way; M&S would have access to new design talent, while students could learn from a major fashion retailer.
In 1969 our swimwear designer Illo Sommerfeld taught fashion students at Kingston College of Art after students wrote to M&S to ask with assistance with a swimwear project. Students made up their designs using fabric donated by M&S, and presented them to an audience of tutors and M&S colleagues.
Illo Sommerfeld was born in 1926 in Berlin, she came to England as part of the Kindertransport operation in the 1930s. She joined M&S as a designer in 1955.
Our links with the fashion courses at The Royal College of Art (RCA) go back to the 1960s when Hans was on the Advisory Panel for the college.
In 1974 our designer, Ken Haworth, contributed to a fashion show celebrating 25 years of the RCA School of Fashion Design. His dress and shirt were shown alongside garments from other former students including Zandra Rhodes and Bill Gibb. Between 1982 and 1985, students designed garments to be shown at exclusive M&S fashion shows. Each season the most popular designs from the show were put into production. Of the 1984 collection, our designer Lin Morris said: ‘The garments have been left exactly the way the students designed them’.
In the 1990s we sponsored the New Generation designers’ group at London Fashion Week. Head of Design Brian Godbold said ‘M&S has always supported young talent. It is important for us to stay in contact with the source of new ideas’.
In 2010 students from RCA were invited to submit designs for our Limited Collection range. Ten final designs were chosen, and the collection was launched during London Fashion Week. One of the students, Anna Smit, was crowned the overall winner and invited to produce a full collection for Spring 2011.
Autumn 2024 saw the announcement of a nationwide search for M&S’s new designer, with the launch of a competitive ITV series, M&S: Dress the Nation. The series documents the progress of 10 hopeful candidates competing to secure a highly coveted in-house junior design role.
