Is it cool to wear M&S clothes now?

"I'm the first person to be like, 'It's from M&S, you need to get on to it,'" Farron Clark, a 26-year-old brand strategist tells me. She says it's officially cool to buy your clothes from the high street retailer now.

According to Clark and others on social media, Marks and Spencer is becoming the hot place to shop for women under 35, while also keeping its core older audience happy too.

"For a long time M&S had this fusty reputation - it was less valued by younger people," says Chioma Nnadi, head of editorial content at British Vogue, who tells the BBC there is now a "fresh energy around the brand".

And accompanying that fresh energy is a new marketing strategy, which includes hosting its first-ever London Fashion Week show on Friday, featuring a collection of outfits inspired by the brand's archive.

So how is M&S attracting and retaining a younger generation of shoppers in a highly competitive market? The BBC went to the catwalk show and spoke to experts to find out.

Speaking ahead of the event at the Design Museum, the company's head of womenswear design, Lisa Illis, says they wanted to do this because of the "immediacy of seeing something and being able to own it and wear it, rather than waiting six months".

For many, M&S is more synonymous with pig-shaped sweets than cutting-edge fashion, but its runway of 43 womenswear and 10 menswear looks did a lot to persuade people that the latter is where its true talent lie.

Normally Fashion Week is about seeing what you'll be wearing six months from now, but this runway was full of colder weather fits, from opulent faux fur jackets and wrist cuffs, to satin jumpsuits and dresses in rich tones of navy, burgundy and brown.

The catwalk featured a diverse range of models in age, size and gender, demonstrating the brand's desire to cater to a wide market.

But there was certainly a concerted effort to attract the eye of younger shoppers with a fashion-forward approach to Christmas party staples like sequinned dresses, tasselled skirts and see-through lace tops.

The retailer has been focusing on "newer styles and relevant trends" to attract younger customers, says Illis.

But she says that this has been achieved without compromising on quality which is what keeps M&S's core audience on board.

"They have created a modern version of everything we know and love - cashmere staples, knitwear and the lingerie department," says Nnadi.

Clark agrees that M&S has been nailing "funnel neck [styles] and barrel jeans, which are filtering down from high fashion".

M&S has perhaps been fortunate to rebrand at a time when consumer habits are changing, as young shoppers consider buying capsule wardrobes - a smaller number of staple pieces that can be styled in a variety of ways.

Clark notes that the idea of wear-it-once fast fashion has declined as people "are looking for [foundational pieces] to rotate".

This is something Perrie Sian, one of Britain's biggest fashion influencers, has also noticed. The 34-year-old tells the BBC: "The real height of fast fashion is behind us".

"As a group we've changed our shopping habits and M&S slots into that," she says. "In my content and with lots of other creators we're showing people how to wear things in multiple ways, how to look after them."

She added that she is noticing "people are willing to spend a little bit more" on wardrobe staples and items that "wash well and are made of cotton, not acrylic or polyester".

During the Covid pandemic M&S struggled, but returned to growth in 2022-2023, with its fashion, home and beauty market share reaching 9.6%.

This again increased in 2023-2024 to 10%, and 10.5% in 2024-2025.

But the business took a big hit in 2025 due to a cyber attack, which left shoppers unable to use its website and app and affected stock in stores too.

It means M&S's market share on fashion, home and beauty now sits at 10.2% for 2025-26.

Nnadi says M&S has been investing heavily in its retail spaces in recent years, focusing on "accessible luxury" with stores that feel "welcoming, new and fresh".

And that's something Clark has noticed too.

"Getting an iced coffee and having a walk around M&S with my friends is the perfect Saturday," she says. "My generation do so much sitting on our phones, so an in-person experience becomes a bit of an activity."

According to Sian, M&S has also taken "more risks" recently, which has helped it "create viral moments", including hosting a pit-lane fashion show at this year's F1 British Grand Prix and collaborating with British designers and creators.

"I'm seeing on Instagram or TikTok somebody say, 'Oh my goodness, this faux leather jacket is from M&S and it looks like it's £500 from the runway.'

"And what am I doing? I'm hop, skip, jumping into my car and getting straight to my local M&S to hunt it down," Sian jokes. "They have embraced young designers like Marco Capaldo, the founder and creative director of 16Arlington," adds Nnadi.

"And the Aries collab was genius and unexpected - it's a brand that has a lot of fashion kudos and is very British in its aesthetic but represents a younger vision of what British cool looks like," she says.

Clark agrees the brand has "homed in on experts in their craft, rather than partnering with a million different people" like other fashion brands have made the mistake of doing.

She notes their recent partnership with Stormzy's stylist Melissa Holbrook-Akposoe, who goes by Melissa's Wardrobe on social media, as "adding credibility" for younger shoppers.