The Archive will be closed from Monday 16 December, re-opening on Monday 6 January 2025.
From panty girdles to tea pots, M&S has used bright and beautiful prints and patterns on a variety of products.
Here at the M&S Archive we’ve digitised the prints in our collection, making them easily accessible for researchers, designers and students.
This exhibition explores our popular prints from the last 90 years.
After first being introduced at M&S in 1927, clothing in the 1930s made use of a range of bright prints and delicate embroidery.
From 1938 we bought printed fabric designs from Paris studios as well as creating our own prints in-house.
Rationing and austerity measures during the Second World War limited clothing design. To compensate for the restrictions on materials, we used eye-catching prints to elevate basic fabrics.
Post-war optimism, new synthetic fabrics and the New Look silhouette led the way.
Floral and Paisley prints were incredibly popular on M&S clothing, with a huge variety of colour-ways and patterns available.
As mini-skirts arrived and we launched new ranges for teenagers in the 1960s, it was all about bold and bright florals and geometric patterns.
The 1970s saw a resurgence in the popularity of natural fibres. At the same time, bold homeware prints emerged, while tonal and floral prints led the way in clothing.
1980s fashions were heavily influenced by Dallas-style power dressing and the booming keep-fit trend. Matching prints were the way forward along with naturalistic florals and block prints.
M&S clothing moved towards casual layered outfits in the 1990s so our prints and patterns were designed with this in mind, allowing customers to create a fully coordinated look.
In the 2000s we introduced new sub-brands across our clothing ranges with an even wider range of prints made available. Bold motifs and confident prints characterise the patterns of the 2010s.
From sketch to store, our pattern designs have always been carefully considered and developed.
During the late 1960s M&S enlisted the skills and artistry of embroidery designer Margaret Nash.
She became the company’s only embroiderer, and went on to create designs for everything from ladies’ dresses, lingerie and swimwear to menswear and childrenswear.
Margaret kindly donated her 1970s childrenswear samples to the Archive. They offer an insight into the design process behind some of the patterns in our collection.
Her playful children’s designs range from colourful animals to floral motifs.
In Margaret’s own words, ‘I always felt when you designed for children that there should be a little bit of humour attached’
Helen Chislett, Marks In Time: 125 Years of Marks & Spencer, 2009.
In the late 1940s Elisabeth Tomalin was appointed head of the M&S Textile Print Design department after working for the Ministry of Information during the war where she designed iconic Homefront posters.
Elisabeth understood the power of print and how colourful patterns could make people feel good despite lingering austerity.
Elisabeth created print designs for Marspun dresses. Marspun was a spun rayon originally produced under the Utility Scheme during the war.
M&S created thousands of Marspun prints. In 1955 alone, 3000 different Marspun dresses were on sale in 340 Parisian-inspired designs and 2000 colour combinations.
At M&S we’ve used a range of printing and other pattern-making techniques throughout our history.
Whether it was silk screen printing or embroidery, tie-dye or transfer printing, we made sure our sales assistants knew how the prints they were selling were made.
Our staff magazine, St Michael News, featured articles about the manufacturing processes behind some of these fabrics.
Today, prints and patterns are designed and manufactured using the latest technology and Computer Aided Design.
As part of our Plan A commitments, we only use printers and dye houses which meet our sustainability standards. We were the first major retailer to develop a special code of conduct for these manufacturers.
One of the first commercial methods of printing patterns was silk screen printing.
Each colour is applied by a separate screen onto fabric. The cloth is steamed to set the colour, and the chemicals washed out. The cloth is then spun in a hydro machine before being hung up in a drying chamber to dry completely at around 100-120 degrees centigrade.
Before the introduction of transfer printing, the conventional way of printing fabric was to print each colour separately.
The new method of transfer printing meant that all the colours could be transferred in one go. A pattern would be printed in dye on paper, which was then laid over the fabric and a hot press applied.
In the 1970s, M&S was the biggest single user of transfer printing. This new method was quicker, less expensive and could be done in much cleaner and more comfortable working conditions than other methods.
Batik is a wax-resist dyeing technique, popular for hundreds of years particularly in parts of Asia and Africa. Batik grew in popularity in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s.
Melted wax is dripped onto the fabric, once the wax has cooled the fabric can be dyed. The wax resists the dye, and so a pattern is created by removing the wax and repeating the process. Batik dyed fabrics have continued to be popular with M&S customers.
Wartime restrictions meant that where previously luxurious materials and trimmings had been used, garments now had to be made from basic fabrics like rayon and cotton.
M&S focused on print design and new print technologies to elevate these standard fabrics, creating garments that stood out on the high street and that customers would want to spend their precious coupons on.
From circus prints to hieroglyphics, the prints on our Utility garments were designed to lift the mood.
The majority of the clothing we sold between 1941 and 1945 was branded with a CC41 label to show that these high quality garments met strict Utility standards.
The Home department was introduced in 1969.
The range initially included soft furnishings in bold and colourful prints. It then expanded to include crockery and home accessories in the 1980s.
Many patterns used at this time are still instantly recognisable including our best-selling Autumn Leaves and Edwardian Lady designs.
Our collection contains hundreds of prints and patterns on a variety of products.
For the company’s 125th anniversary in 2009, design teams reused prints from the archive collection to inspire a range of new products, like this 1950s dress shown alongside the 2009 version.
The project instigated a new way of using heritage M&S patterns. The archive collection continues to be a source of inspiration for designers.
The Archive by Alexa collection launched in 2016.
Model and presenter Alexa Chung reinterpreted her favourite pieces from the archive, making them relevant for our customers. Archive prints made their way onto many of the new pieces. The floral print on a 1930s dressing gown was used on three different products, including a pair of shoes.
A 1950s apron inspired the Eliza dress from the Spring/Summer collection. The print, pockets and piping detail of the apron were all used in the design of the dress.
