Designers Take to the High Street

Once the reserve of a rich minority, designer labels – without the designer price tags – are now available to the majority of the style-conscious population. This high street invasion has seen international design stars such as Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf and Karl Lagerfeld team up with H&M, as well celebrity endorsements from the likes of Lily Allen at New Look and Kate Moss for Topshop.

Perhaps the biggest design success story of the last decade has been the turnaround in Marks & Spencer’s diminishing fortunes, and its reinvention as a bastion of the British high street. M&S has successfully widened its appeal from the functional to the fashionable with the creation of its boutique Per Una label and cut across age and gender with its clever marketing campaigns, featuring the likes of Twiggy, Erin O’Connor and Mylene Class. Celebrated designer George Davies came to M&S in 2001 claiming to “ know what women want,” and his designs have proved just that, with M&S cornering the female market with their slogan “every woman, every time.”

Topshop have also lead the way in bringing designer fashion to the British high street. As well as commissioning ranges from household names, they've also given rail space to exciting young talent like Jonathan Saunders, Marios Schwab and Christopher Kane, also providing financial and business support to these new labels.