Editors' Top Reads: News from M&S, John Lewis, Kurt Geiger and more...

Here are some of this week’s news and features highlights handpicked by TheIndustry.fashion team.

John Lewis to welcome almost 50 new brands in bid to lift fashion credentials

John Lewis has partnered with 49 new fashion brands as it seeks to sharpen its style credentials. A smart move, as rivals NEXT and Marks & Spencer continue to deliver strong trading in clothing.

The British department store is working with the new brands for its SS25 collection as part of efforts to revive clothing sales. It said the choice of new labels also reflects a customer shift towards "more exciting" menswear lines and is expanding ranges from existing labels with exclusive lines from Barbour, Gant and Ralph Lauren too.

It comes after John Lewis reported weaker sales from its fashion arm in the first half of the latest financial year, blaming pressure on customers’ budgets. Fashion Director Rachel Morgans said the new brands and products should make customers "sit up and take notice".

As M&S has recently shown us, there's a good appetite for clothing at department stores - you just have to get it right, which is exactly what John Lewis plans to do as part of its effort "to modernise its offer" under boss Peter Ruis. Will it be successful? Only time will tell.

Sophie Smith, News Editor & Senior Writer.

Kurt Geiger sold to Steve Madden in £289 million deal

Kurt Geiger has changed hands once again. If I have this correct, it has been sold eight times since its inception just over 60 years ago. That doesn't mean though, that it isn't a desirable or successful business. Its last owner, the private equity house Cinven, has held on to it for a decade which is a lifetime in PE years, but it is worth noting that Cinven paid £245 million for the business in 2015, so having sold it for £289 million it hasn't exactly augmented its value in that time (but am sure it received dividends and other rewards along the way and it's more than got its money back).

All that being said, Steve Madden looks like a good, new parent company and it is acquiring an expanding business. In the year to February 2024, Kurt Geiger annual sales rose 10% to £360 million and in recent years it has grown rapidly in popularity in Steve Madden's home market of the US.

Kurt Geiger, best known for its shoes, has also made a name for itself in handbags. In a world where luxury brands have lost their minds and have been hiking prices to eye-watering levels in recent years (and yes, chickens are coming home to roost on that front now), Kurt Geiger has been focusing on considered design and quality at reasonable prices. Furthermore, its brightly coloured designs go over especially well in cities, such as Miami, and I understand designers at the brand are creating product specifically with that customer in mind.

So the marriage between Kurt Geiger and Steve Madden looks like an auspicious one. I shall be curious to see how it pans out and whether Kurt Geiger's inimitable CEO Neil Clifford (who has held the post since 2003 - and I think is on his sixth new owner) will stick around this time. Hope so...

Lauretta Roberts, Co-founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief.

Why is M&S 'transforming' an already successful fashion business? The industry weighs in...

Forget New York Fashion Week, this week's biggest fashion news concerns Marks & Spencer.

Last autumn, Marks & Spencer's leopard-print jeans were sought after by no less than 12,000 women in the UK. That's twelve thousand. From that alone, you'd imagine the business is thriving—and you'd be correct. So when the heritage retailer announced last week it was reshuffling its leadership with three new appointments in an effort to "transform" the business, many of us were wondering, well, why on earth?

Ex-Boohoo CEO John Lyttle will be joining as Managing Director of Clothing, Home & Beauty in a planned succession, replacing Richard Price. His retail and transformation experience includes five years as Chief Executive at Boohoo and nine years as COO at Primark.

Maddy Evans, currently Director of Womenswear, is trying the Director of M&S Woman role on for size, while David Brittain will take over from Heidi Woodhouse, Director of Home & Beauty, at the end of April. Brittain is currently the Business Development Director at Amazon Fashion in Europe.

I spoke to several retail experts and industry commentators to find out whether this was a shrewd business move during a time of clear fruitfulness for the retailer, or whether Chairman Archie Norman and CEO Stuart Machin had simply lost the plot. But if you think I'm going to give anything away here, you're sorely mistaken: read the feature!

Katie Ross, Content & Events Executive.

Show report: Scoop sees uplift in buyer confidence with appetite for newness for AW25

Following on from the upbeat mood at the first combined Moda x Pure trade show at the NEC in Birmingham last week, Scoop at Olympia West in London’s Kensington on Monday seemed even more buoyant in terms of exhibitor and buyer mood.

The place was truly buzzing and what stood out was that so many exhibitors talked of how buyers were really seeking newness, something different to spike fresh interest from their customers.

Mirabel Edgedale, Director of Mirabel Edgedale agency, showing Zapa from Paris – a brand which is seeing a return to wholesale after several seasons concentrating on its own retail – talked of how she hadn’t heard of one complaint about the current state of the market, which came as quite a surprise to her. She said that last year buyers would come on stands and firmly say that they were not buying anything new, but this season (for AW25) they were keen to start. A notable change in attitude that can only bring confidence.

Julia Di Serio and Flora Foo, co-owners of new jewellery and accessories agency, Jolene, showing Orelia, Gas Bijoux and Vanessa Baroni jewellery, were so overrun with buyer interest and order writing that they had to call in Julia’s housemate, who works for the NHS, to help them out for the first two days of the show.

Meanwhile, Alex Radford, Women’s Sales Director at Palladio Associates, showing a record 11 brands – including many new ones having been busy sourcing key looks, styles and price points to fit certain criteria and customer profile - talked of the show seemingly getting busier at lunchtime on day two, though they had already seen a lot of retailers they had expected to. Again, the talk was of buyers seeking newness. Could it possibly mean there are better times ahead? Time will tell, but the feedback was certainly encouraging.

NYFW Wrapped: This season's standout shows

Many moons ago, when I was living in one of New York's skyscrapers, I attended NYFW with my then-boss, the Founder of NYFW Fern Mallis. The glitz and glamour was unparalleled. Yes, here in London we ooze edge, but there's something about New York that just sparkles (it may have been the Hollywood-packed front rows).

So, as I do every season since I've moved back from the concrete jungle, I got my fashion fix by watching the weekend unfold from my iPhone screen. As the sun set on NYFW and thick snow covered the sidewalks (pavements to us Londoners) I curated a cheat sheet for the best-of-the-best Autumn/Winter 2025 runway collections for those of us oceans away.

Mallis told TheIndustry.fashion: "NYFW was all over the city and we navigated through snowy, very cold weather. I was surprised to see a revival of fur in so many shows… also lots of leather and feathers. The clothes were either very short or very oversized. Quiet luxury is not so quiet anymore."

From Christian Cowen's bubble gum dress made from silicone to Calvin Klein's oversized return to the runway, read our curated list of the week's most talked-about runways here.

Chloé Burney, Senior News & Features Writer.