There was a lot trumpeting and banging of gongs within the enterprise media not too long ago as excessive avenue favorite Subsequent turned in annual earnings of greater than £1 billion for the primary time. Its gross sales hit £6.3bn.
Effectively achieved them. That equates to round £2.74 million revenue every day, or £114,150 every hour of every single day. No surprise Subsequent head honcho Simon Wolfson, who has been in cost since August 2001, is held up as one of many best 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 immediately’s trend business debate.
With this month-to-month column in thoughts, I went right into a Subsequent retailer on London’s Oxford Avenue with the thought of how the enterprise merchandised its menswear. My plan was to check Subsequent’s method with that of Marks & Spencer.
I quickly obtained distracted, nonetheless, by testing 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 mustn’t have been stunned at how few pure materials – equivalent to 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 Common on the Subsequent web site – is product of 62/35/3 recycled polyester/viscose/polyester.
I might go on however you get the image…
There are a couple of pure cotton and pure linen gadgets for spring however they’re few certainly.
Just a few ideas occurred to me. Firstly, if that is what a big proportion of the UK inhabitants are proud of as a range, there appears little level of a comparatively few noisy individuals shouting about sustainability in trend and saving the planet.
Secondly, if materials like this are required to hit worth factors that work for the UK shopper and nonetheless permit sufficient margin for Subsequent to show in earnings of £1bn, the possibilities of vital change are nil.
These are my observations quite than criticisms – it isn’t for me to inform Subsequent find out how to run its enterprise, however I do suppose it’s odd the corporate often is held up as a paragon of contemporary trend retailing. Why doesn’t it are available for extra criticism from the moral crowd? Or does it and I simply haven’t seen?
I totally settle for that in all probability virtually excessive avenue retailer of any measurement makes the identical selections (and I didn’t even take a look at Subsequent’s womenswear).
What I do know is that the Subsequent of immediately is a great distance from the revolutionary idea that burst on to the British excessive avenue 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 reasonably priced costs. Pure materials had 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 worth 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’ll afford? And what worth does the surroundings pay for regardless of the reply is?
Simply leaping again to my authentic motive for visiting Subsequent, a touch upon LinkedIn a couple of weeks criticised Marks & Spencer, whose enhancements in its personal menswear have been a lot applauded, for not displaying sufficient color for menswear in its shops. Having achieved a fast recce of M&S in The Pantheon on London’s Oxford Avenue 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 material alternative, color alternative is a really slender class inside the excessive avenue majors. Navy, gray, black and varied incarnations of beige predominate, which prompts a few of the similar 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 operating their companies by techniques however it’s simple to see why good menswear independents, which nowadays are full of color, achieve this effectively.
By the way in which, in case you’re questioning, I did begin to have a look at M&S’s material 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.
