Editors' Top Reads: News from M&S, Zalando, Coco de Mer and more...
Here are some of this week’s news and features highlights handpicked by TheIndustry.fashion team.
The Interview: M&S Menswear Director talks F1 partnerships, Autograph growth, Good Move relaunch and star-studded ambassadors
M&S’s menswear team certainly seems to be covering all bases. That was the impression I got from my interview with the retailer’s Menswear Director, Mitch Hughes, which we ran on Monday.
It came off the back of M&S agreeing a “multi-year partnership” to dress the Atlassian Williams Formula 1 Racing Team to and from races with its Autograph Performance collection - kicking off with 24 races in 21 countries across the F1 2026 calendar.
Then, a week later, M&S announced another motorsport partnership, this time with Silverstone Circuit.
That will see M&S take a prominent role across Silverstone’s annual calendar of events – including a “world-class programme” of live entertainment, immersive experiences and interactive activities for fans across the four-day Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix from 2-5 July 2026. That will see up to 60,000 fans gather each night at the M&S Stage for “show-stopping performances” from some of the world’s leading chart-topping artists. That’s some decent brand exposure, especially as M&S continues to expand on a global scale.
The moves into motorsport came about from in-depth in-house research around M&S’s male customer - finding out what he wanted, how he shopped and what his wardrobe was like for work and for the weekend. Also, the three big things that came through as important to its customers were Formula 1, football and cooking. Slightly surprising, but great insight.
But it’s not just listening to its customers where M&S is getting it right. The mainline Autograph range is really hitting home on its design merits, and M&S made another savvy move in getting actor James Nelson-Joyce on board as a brand ambassador. He wears it well. Another series of the hit crime family drama ‘This City is Ours,’ in which he stars, is out soon too, and M&S plans to run a new campaign with him around that. Good timing.
With supermodel David Gandy now fronting the Jaeger collection, and popular former footballer turned pundit and TV celebrity Ian Wright doing a fine job with the entry-level M&S Collection, it’s all falling very nicely into place.
On another front, M&S relaunched its Good Move menswear offer in January, having seen it have big success in womenswear. Within that, there’s going to be a padel range launching soon. As one of the fastest-growing sports in the UK, it’s another on-the-money manoeuvre.
Add to that, with England playing in the World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada this summer, and M&S’s continued long-term partnership with the FA for apparel, there’s plenty more to come.
How I started in fashion: Coco de Mer owner & CEO Lucy Litwack
We've recently started a new series of features on how interesting fashion figures came to be in our industry. This week, we look at one of the UK lingerie industry's best-known names, Lucy Litwack, owner and CEO of Coco de Mer.
If you haven't met Lucy, first of all, you're missing out, but you get a bit of a flavour of her character in this feature. Her career has taken in some of the biggest names in lingerie, including Bendon and Victoria's Secret, and she also launched David Beckham's underwear range. No one knows undergarments like Lucy!
In 2014, she joined Coco de Mer as MD before carrying out an MBO in 2017. Now she owns the British luxury lingerie and female pleasure brand and is its CEO.
What is so remarkable about her is not just her ability to drive this brand with such finesse and vision, but also her commitment to the empowerment and safeguarding of women around the world. She's as passionate about this as she is about business, and it's completely authentic. If you do ever get the chance to meet her, you'll find she's warm and very funny too!
Lauretta Roberts, Co-founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief.
M&S appoints actress Gillian Anderson as first-ever 'Chief Compliments Officer'
I never thought I’d be saying this at the start of the week, but I now have Gillian Anderson as a LinkedIn connection. This clever twist comes as part of Marks & Spencer’s announcement of Anderson as its first-ever Chief Compliments Officer - a playful new role created for the retailer’s latest ‘Love That’ campaign.
The appointment coincides with the launch of Marks & Spencer’s Spring 26 womenswear collection and celebrates both the joy of fashion and the power of compliments. Earlier this week, a new ad premiered, featuring Anderson on her first day in the role, delivering style compliments to women wearing the Spring 26 designs - all set to the iconic track ‘Oh Yeah’ by Yello.
This will be followed by a content series highlighting an assistant working behind the scenes, encouraging as many ‘Love That’ comments as possible, amplifying the playful, feel-good spirit of the campaign.
It comes during a busy week for Anderson, who also took to the runway at the Miu Miu show during Paris Fashion Week.
Sophie Smith, News Editor & Senior Writer.
Zalando launches SS26 campaign with first global brand ambassador Lily Collins
For its full-year 2025 financial reports, German online fashion retailer Zalando reported double-digit growth in revenue and profit, and highlighted its ambitions to scale AI innovations.
Notably, the online retailer said that one way it had been deploying AI in 2025 was by scaling AI-generated product content from near zero to 90% in one year, boosting content output by 70% due to shorter campaign lead times.
Just days before the announcement of Zalando's financial statement, the online retailer published its new celebrity-fronted campaign, debuting Golden Globe-nominated English/American actress Lily Collins. I couldn't help but wonder: was this an example of how they had been employing AI?
I think we all remember the AI marketing campaign "slop" that has been produced over the last year, especially over Christmas (I'm thinking Coca-Cola's attempt at recreating its iconic truck ad, and McDonald's ad, which was actually removed because so many people disliked it).
So I did a little digging, and as far as I can tell, the Lily Collins campaign is not made by AI. It was created by marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy, who name the director of the short film, the stylist, and the photographer on their website. No mention of AI. And I can see why. The campaign is slick, Collins looks radiant, and the set looks incredible - all I want is to go swim on the beaches of Europe when I see it. I don't think AI could have recreated something to this level (yet).
Clearly, when it comes to big campaigns, Zalando is still counting on the ingenuity of well-seasoned marketing and production people. I can only hope this will continue in the future, as fashion relies so heavily on high-quality content and images - and I would hate to see AI-generated "slop" take over the industry. So far, I am impressed with Zalando's efforts.
Camilla Rydzek, Senior News & Features Writer.
