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March 08, 2004
lifestore
Today I was back in the office, and so lunch becomes a special thing. After deconstructing the new colourful Zara men's clothing range - American Eagle meets US-style Urban Outfitters (hey, I was waiting for someone to return something), we headed to M&S.
I know the Marks and Spencer's food planogram like the back of my hand. I can tell you the reasoning behind the range choices, the multibuy offers and the cross-sell cabinets. My friend and I have been stopped several times by customers asking for help, suggestions and meal plans. Staff think we're mystery shoppers. (current state of play: like the extension of 'perfect roasting' poultry, not really sure what's happened to the Indian range, cheese selection impressive, product suggestion - individual polypacks of salad and salad dressing)
Clothing has never been considered. Homewares not an option. The financial results of M&S show many people agree. Recently the women's clothing lines have been doing better, but to boost the home business, M&S recruited Vittorio Radice, the chief executive of Selfridges, who had turned a greying department store into a directional leader of fashion and furnishings.
The result of this has just been launched: Lifestore.
It's a mixture of concept store (in Gateshead) and catalogue. Both have potential - John Pawson has designed a complete two-floor house that was built in the middle of the store, and a 'design directory' overseen by Tyler Brule.
As with all projects like this, there's a concept.
"Rather than trying to shoehorn a store into a catalogue or apply a magazine concept to a shop, we've taken a step back and examined the way you live, then built a concept which responds to all the needs and necessities for every day in your life... Marks & Spencer has thought about how we spend our days, nights and downtime. How we consume information. How we entertain ourselves, friends and family. How we shop. How we pull ourselves together each morning and how we do the same for our homes, flats, rooms and retreats."
And so it goes on.
So, impressions. It looks and feels like the Habitat catalogue, and much of the range of furniture has a similar feel and price to Heals/Habitat (with a dash of some quasi-uber-expensive Ikea). This is quite a feat, really, as Habitat has been working hard at bolstering its design image for several years now, and this catalogue feels like it has a much larger range than its mentor.
It occasionally veers into traditional Marks and Spencer patterns, colours and forms (or are they ironic?), but a lot of it is really quite bold for M&S. In fact, many pieces feel as though they're trying slightly too hard to be cool - to the point of having to design the room around them.
The stuff I like, I can't afford. Except this.
One point for attention is that it's homewares++. There's the traditional Habitat-stlye range of cookware, but there's also exercise equipment, art prints, towels, luggage, even hairdryers and irons. I guess this may work better in store, but it feels decidedly half hearted in print.
I'm interested to see how this goes. I wish it luck. I can't see the traditional M&S market (hello mum) wanting this kind of style, and I can't see the stylish wanting to admit they have their ready meal sitting on expensive furniture from M&S. The choice of Gateshead for the lead store is interesting too. There's a lot of money around there, but it will be competing directly with a nearby Ikea, and it's not a notably minimalist area.
(I seem to be part of some spontaneous Grid::Fashion)
OK, that's the last post about shopping. For a short while. Promise.
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