Marks & Spencer launched its much-anticipated collaboration with Bella Freud on Thursday, with fans quickly buying up items from the 27-piece collection.
By lunchtime, coveted items such as the pleated pinstripe skirt had been bought in most sizes from the website, and by Friday morning the majority of the items had sold out in most sizes online. The retailer says the collection will not be restocked.
The success of the collection is partially because Freud’s trademark slogan knitwear and retro aesthetic are a good fit with Marks & Spencer. “Freud has such a knack for creating personality-packed pieces that are easy to wear and appealing to all ages,” says Joy Montgomery, the shopping editor at Vogue. “This, paired with the British public’s universal love of M&S, makes for a pretty potent pairing.”
The hype around the sellout has to be put into context, because collaboration ranges are often produced in much smaller quantities than the majority of items on the shop floor. “It would not be the same sort of volume as the core Marks & Spencer lines,” confirms the retail commentator Catherine Shuttleworth. “It could be hundreds, rather than thousands.”
However, the Freud collaboration does remains a success in its category. It can be compared to John Lewis’s collaboration with the London-based brand A.W.A.K.E. Mode. Also launched on Thursday, most items remained in stock online by Friday morning. “When you’re choosing a collab as a retailer, you’ve got to remember who you are,” says Shuttleworth. “I shop in John Lewis, I’m thinking, ‘Who are [A.W.A.K.E. Mode]?’ whereas I knew who Bella Freud was straight away. You get hits and misses for collabs, you’ve got to be really good at understanding the consumer.”
While Freud is an established designer – she began her label in 1990 – she is forever known for dressing the likes of Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller and Kate Moss in her slogan knitwear in the 00s, an era currently in focus for a younger consumer. “Like every other millennial woman, I was obsessed with Alexa Chung’s style,” says Montgomery. “The moment I saw her in the brand’s graphic 1970 jumper, I was sold … the logo knit feels like a gentle way to embrace the Primrose Hill set nostalgia.”
Shuttleworth argues the success of this collaboration is Marks & Spencer flexing its retail muscles. “This is not about the jumpers, there’s a halo effect. What they’re saying is: ‘Look at us. We’re the people that are absolutely on the pulse of fashion in the UK.’”
• The headline of this article was amended on 21 October 2024 because an earlier version said that the collection had sold out in a day. That was true of most, but not all, of the collection.
