M&S to target fashion-conscious male market with casual range

Marks & Spencer is launching a branded range of casual menswear to compete with designer labels and stores such as Gap, House of Fraser and Debenhams.

M&S hopes the range, which will go on sale in the spring in all M&S stores that sell menswear, will appeal to more styleand fashion-conscious consumers than its existing men’s clothing lines.

M&S will not reveal the brand name of the collection, designed by a team led by Yasmin Yusuf, who joined M&S from Warehouse last year. It is the first time that M&S has launched a mainstream range for men only. The designer Autograph range comprises both men’s and women’s clothing, while the Per Una collection launched last month (MW October 4) is to build on its womenswear offering.

“The range will be more fashionable than the traditional ranges. It will fill a gap that we know we have in men’s casual wear,” says an M&S spokeswoman.

It will be sold in special branded sections within M&S stores but not in a “shop within a shop” like the Autograph collection.

M&S has signed up former footballer George Best to appear in a television advertising campaign created by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R. The ads will break before Christmas.