Marks & Spencer Best of British AW14 - seventies men's style from the archives

Marks & Spencer showed its AW14 Best of British collection at London Collections:Men in January. In a dramatic show, using models as opposed to the static display they used previously, M&S continued their successful search for British-made menswear style. Again they have raided their archives and the seventies have clearly been a heavy influence. I remember some of this stuff the first time round and I love it. There will even be a brown velvet jacket - groovy!

I look forward to seeing the Autumn/Winter collection more closely. Meanwhile, see the wonderful Spring/Summer Best of British collection, now in the shops and on the M&S website here. 

Red cashmere for Christmas from M&S Best of British

I'm not doing a feature on Christmas jumpers this year, but thought I'd write about colourful knitwear that will brighten up our lives as the days shorten. We've looked at orange, today it's that seasonal colour, red. 

This cashmere jumper is made in Scotland and is part of the M&S Best of British collection. I have one in bright blue and it's superb quality, soft and thick cashmere. See M&S Best of British for information.

Marks & Spencer menswear for Spring/Summer 2014 - looking good!

The M&S press day this week gave me another look at their menswear for next Spring and Summer. Bold checks and colours reflect Marks & Spencer's increasing confidence, offering classics enhanced with modern cuts, as shown in the image below.

And the confidence is well-justified. There are some lovely clothes, all marked with great attention to quality and detail. There's not much here I wouldn't be happy to wear. Indeed, I'm hoping, in the new year, to repeat my recent Guardian photo-shoot to show that M&S are offering quality and style fit for all ages of man. 

I've talked about their Best of British collection before - and the sharp tailoring, checks and dapper silhouettes that it introduced are now filtering into the Sartorial and other collections, giving a logical uniformity to the menswear range; a sure sign that M&S feel they are getting it right. 

Overall, I still feel there's a bit of confusion between the different collections, but this is a minor quibble and the wide choice doesn't undermine the quality of the offering and the richness of the choice.

M&S Best of British SS14

M&S Best of British 2014

M&S Best of British 2014

Marks & Spencer Best of British - Grey Fox tries it out

Earlier this week I posted an article on The Guardian Fashion Blogs Network in which I was photographed wearing M&S's Best of British collection. When I first approached them with the idea, M&S had little idea how I would use the images or what I would say. But they agreed without seeking reassurances. They provided clothes, location, photographer and even a stylist - and it was a bit of fun.

Images Marks & Spencer. Images of Grey Fox by Keir Harris

Regulars here will know that one of my themes is the failure of the fashion industry to use older models in marketing campaigns. Although M&S are an exception (think of Twiggy and the recent campaign which included Dame Helen Mirren, Tracy Emin and others) they chose to use a young model (Oliver Cheshire) to sell Best of British. I felt that such a high quality, classic yet modern, collection should be tried on an older man. I'd like to thank the superb photographer, Keir Harris, who did much to put me at ease and took such excellent images.

For Grey Fox's first impressions of M&S Best of British, click here.
For more on the Best of British collection for men and women on the M&S website, click here.