There was a lot trumpeting and banging of gongs within the enterprise media lately as excessive road favorite Subsequent turned in annual income of greater than £1 billion for the primary time. Its gross sales hit £6.3bn.
Nicely carried out them. That equates to round £2.74 million revenue every day, or £114,150 every hour of daily. No surprise Subsequent head honcho Simon Wolfson, who has been in cost since August 2001, is held up as one of many most interesting retailers of his technology.
Now I’ve a query for him: why does Subsequent use a lot artificial materials in its menswear ranges? Is monetary success within the UK solely attainable by compromising on high quality or sustainable requirements?
I feel these are related questions in in the present day’s style business debate.
With this month-to-month column in thoughts, I went right into a Subsequent retailer on London’s Oxford Road with the concept of how the enterprise merchandised its menswear. My plan was to check Subsequent’s method with that of Marks & Spencer.
I quickly acquired distracted, nonetheless, by trying out the material labels in Subsequent’s males’s clothes. I’ve not bothered to have a look at these for a few years as I’ve by no means shopped at Subsequent. Genuinely, I do know I shouldn’t have been shocked at how few pure materials – reminiscent of pure cotton or 100% wool – are on supply, however I used to be.
For instance, Subsequent primary white shirts at £22 are 65% recycled polyester, 35% cotton. A textured jersey overshirt or shacket for £42 is 54/42/4 cotton/recycled polyester/elastane. A £30 hoodie is 80/20 cotton/recycled polyester. A £60 go well with jacket – listed as Most Standard on the Subsequent web site – is made from 62/35/3 recycled polyester/viscose/polyester.
I may go on however you get the image…
There are just a few pure cotton and pure linen objects for spring however they’re few certainly.
A couple of ideas occurred to me. Firstly, if that is what a big proportion of the UK inhabitants are proud of as a variety, there appears little level of a comparatively few noisy folks shouting about sustainability in style and saving the planet.
Secondly, if materials like this are required to hit value factors that work for the UK shopper and nonetheless enable sufficient margin for Subsequent to show in income of £1bn, the probabilities of vital change are nil.
These are my observations moderately than criticisms – it isn’t for me to inform Subsequent methods to run its enterprise, however I do suppose it’s odd the corporate often is held up as a paragon of recent style retailing. Why doesn’t it are available in for extra criticism from the moral crowd? Or does it and I simply haven’t observed?
I absolutely settle for that in all probability nearly excessive road retailer of any dimension makes the identical selections (and I didn’t even have a look at Subsequent’s womenswear).
What I do know is that the Subsequent of in the present day is a great distance from the revolutionary idea that burst on to the British excessive road in 1982 with womenswear and two years later with menswear. The magic system devised by founder George Davies and Co was to supply wonderful high quality at inexpensive costs. Pure materials have been an enormous a part of that, I recall.
That, nonetheless, was 4 a long time in the past and the steep deflation within the value of mass market garments within the UK since then has been extraordinary and irresistible.
I’d be delighted to listen to the views of others on this dilemma. Does Joe (and Josephine) Public get what they need, or what they deserve, or what they will afford? And what value does the atmosphere pay for regardless of the reply is?
Simply leaping again to my unique cause for visiting Subsequent, a touch upon LinkedIn just a few weeks criticised Marks & Spencer, whose enhancements in its personal menswear have been a lot applauded, for not exhibiting sufficient color for menswear in its shops. Having carried out a fast recce of M&S in The Pantheon on London’s Oxford Road and Subsequent throughout the highway in what I nonetheless consider (after 40 years) as Bourne & Hollingsworth, I can see what the author meant.
I’ve to confess, nonetheless, that, like cloth selection, color selection is a really slender class throughout the excessive road majors. Navy, gray, black and numerous incarnations of beige predominate, which prompts a number of the identical questions as above: Does the Nice British (Male) Public get what they need, or what they deserve? And do they care?
I’m not about to criticise the large boys for working their companies by programs however it’s straightforward to see why good menswear independents, which as of late are filled with color, accomplish that nicely.
By the best way, in case you might be questioning, I did begin to have a look at M&S’s cloth selections. At first look they didn’t appear fairly so “dangerous” (if that’s the phrase) as Subsequent’s, however I used to be feeling so fed up with what I’d seen, I had to surrender.
