In My View by Eric Musgrave: Profiting from synthetics

There was much trumpeting and banging of gongs in the business media recently as high street favourite Next turned in annual profits of more than £1 billion for the first time. Its sales hit £6.3bn.

Well done them. That equates to around £2.74 million profit each day, or £114,150 each hour of every day. No wonder Next head honcho Simon Wolfson, who has been in charge since August 2001, is held up as one of the finest retailers of his generation.

Now I have a question for him: why does Next use so much synthetic fabrics in its menswear ranges? Is financial success in the UK only possible by compromising on quality or sustainable standards?

I think these are relevant questions in today’s fashion industry debate.

With this monthly column in mind, I went into a Next store on London’s Oxford Street with the idea of looking at how the business merchandised its menswear. My plan was to compare Next’s approach with that of Marks & Spencer.

I soon got distracted, however, by checking out the fabric labels in Next’s men’s garments. I have not bothered to look at these for many years as I have never shopped at Next. Genuinely, I know I should not have been surprised at how few natural fabrics – such as pure cotton or 100% wool – are on offer, but I was.

For example, Next basic white shirts at £22 are 65% recycled polyester, 35% cotton. A textured jersey overshirt or shacket for £42 is 54/42/4 cotton/recycled polyester/elastane. A £30 hoodie is 80/20 cotton/recycled polyester. A £60 suit jacket – listed as Most Popular on the Next website – is made of 62/35/3 recycled polyester/viscose/polyester.

I could go on but you get the picture…

There are a few pure cotton and pure linen items for spring but they are few indeed.

A few thoughts occurred to me. Firstly, if this is what a large proportion of the UK population are happy with as a selection, there seems little point of a relatively few noisy people shouting about sustainability in fashion and saving the planet.

Secondly, if fabrics like this are required to hit price points that work for the UK consumer and still allow enough margin for Next to turn in profits of £1bn, the chances of significant change are nil.

These are my observations rather than criticisms – it is not for me to tell Next how to run its business, but I do think it is odd the company usually is held up as a paragon of modern fashion retailing. Why doesn’t it come in for more criticism from the ethical crowd? Or does it and I just haven’t noticed?

I fully accept that probably almost high street retailer of any size makes the same choices (and I did not even look at Next’s womenswear).

What I do know is that the Next of today is a long way from the revolutionary concept that burst on to the British high street in 1982 with womenswear and two years later with menswear. The magic formula devised by founder George Davies and Co was to offer excellent quality at affordable prices. Natural fabrics were a big part of that, I recall.

That, however, was four decades ago and the steep deflation in the price of mass market clothes in the UK since then has been extraordinary and irresistible.

I’d be delighted to hear the views of others on this dilemma. Does Joe (and Josephine) Public get what they want, or what they deserve, or what they can afford? And what price does the environment pay for whatever the answer is?

Just jumping back to my original reason for visiting Next, a comment on LinkedIn a few weeks criticised Marks & Spencer, whose improvements in its own menswear have been much applauded, for not showing enough colour for menswear in its stores. Having done a quick recce of M&S in The Pantheon on London’s Oxford Street and Next across the road in what I still think of (after 40 years) as Bourne & Hollingsworth, I can see what the writer meant.

I have to admit, however, that, like fabric choice, colour choice is a very narrow category within the high street majors. Navy, grey, black and various incarnations of beige predominate, which prompts some of the same questions as above: Does the Great British (Male) Public get what they want, or what they deserve? And do they care?

I am not about to criticise the big boys for running their businesses by systems but it is easy to see why good menswear independents, which these days are packed with colour, do so well.

By the way, in case you are wondering, I did start to look at M&S’s fabric choices. At first glance they did not seem quite so “bad” (if that is the word) as Next’s, but I was feeling so fed up with what I’d seen, I had to give up.