Ok, time to come clean with something that would have made old Millennial Me weak at the knees. I actually love Marks & Spencer basics. Hear me out – I mean it in the literal sense.
I genuinely enjoy wearing their stuff. Not ironically, not because I’ve resigned myself to ugliness, but because they actually make a lot of things that are great staples to have in a minimal wardrobe. If you’re like me and have spent way too much money on clothing trying to find the right stuff, you know how liberating it is when you actually find something that works.
Please don’t click away just yet, I was buying $200 minimalist t-shirts and “investment pieces” that were objectively not any better than a lot of things M&S sells for a quarter of the price. Ok, background: I found M&S about three years ago while trying to curate my wardrobe down to something intentional.
You know the story – You had way too many shirts (ok, maybe 60+, mostly tech conference t-shirts) and you wanted less crap, but what you had was all a bit comforting and cozy and familiar so how were you supposed to actually cut it down?
Part of my problem was that I’d been duped by crap advice from dubious corners of the internet into thinking basics needed to be super expensive. Oversized navy cashmere jumper that I “will wear for the next 15 years”? Sold!
Please send my credit card number. Or whatever we use these days. Bought basically all of my shirts from Japanese brands where it wasn’t unheard of for a single shirt to cost more than most people spend on clothing in a year.
Girlfriend couldn’t even scroll through my history anymore. SO… I grabbed an M&S Supima cotton t-shirt while browsing their store. Was there looking for trousers or some shit, decided to grab one of their basic t-shirts to compare to everything else I was paying a small fortune for.
Cost me £6. Like six pounds. I spend that on coffee sometimes.
Went home, threw it in my rotation, and wore the hell out of it. For context I wear t-shirts every day. Day job in an office doing not much movement means they get laundered pretty frequently too.
After two months of abuse, that £6 shirt was showing less wear than things I’d paid twelve times as much for. Fabric weight was perfect – heavy enough to hang nicely but not so thick that it looked bulky. Neck didn’t stretch out like the horrible elastic necks that cheaper shirts tend to have.
And the fit was just – right. Not boxy like vintage basics, not slim like a hug from your dad’s old gangsta rap phase tee. Just good.
Pulled up the website later and ended up ordering four more in different colours. Those t-shirts are some of the core of my minimal wardrobe now. Expensive brands’ basics?
Half of them have pilled after a year, some have lost their shape. M&S tops are still going strong. Thus began what I’ll call the M&S phase, though you could also call it applied minimalism.
When you’re intentionally limiting yourself to a small wardrobe, every piece has to earn its place. You can’t have half your shirts only being able to pair with certain trousers, or start falling apart after a few months, or cost so much you hesitate to wear them on a Tuesday. M&S basics, the right ones anyway, solve all of these problems.
Let’s talk undies. If you aren’t wearing 40+ shirts, you NEED your underwear to work. Heard that before?
Me too. Trust me. Too many times I’ve been sent on a search through pricy Amazon listings looking for the Holy Grail of underwear when the solution was literally Amazon’s under-ranged brand.
Been there with you, friend. I’d been buying some insane modal boxer briefs – like $30 apiece insane – because some dumb blogger tricked me into thinking they were “the only underwear you’ll ever need.” Spoiler – they weren’t. Waistbands rolled.
Fabric would get funky after washing. All underwear problems. But with underwear, ones no one really sees!
I’d become way too stressed out about underwearOptimizer over peak daily vag=cyclistperformance. M&S boxer briefs, from their Supima cotton line in particular, are fantastic. Fit great.
Stay where they’re supposed to. Don’t get weird in the wash. £8 for a pack of three. I bought enough for every day between laundry days and now… do not think about my underwear.
Literally the best thing you can say about your underwear is that you never think about it. Socks… same story. Got caught up in the whole “but is it merino wool” craze and spent way too much on “premium” socks that all did basically the same thing.
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Finally threw down on some M&S merino blend because they were on sale or something and realised they weren’t any different than some of the socks I’d spent four times as much on. Freshfeet material actually works, too – they do stay fresher longer, which matters when you’re only trying to own five pairs of socks. Knitwear, surprisingly.
Been eyeballing this stupid $300 marino jumper from some Scandinavian place for ages. Added it to my cart. Closed the tab.
Started browsing real clothes retailers. Decided to just grab an M&S pure merino crew neck while I was there for £35, something I told myself I could wear until I saved up enough money to justify the “real” thing. It’s been half a year and I still haven’t bought that other jumper.
This M&S one fits wonderfully, has a clean minimalist look that goes with everything else in my wardrobe, and I don’t feel weird wearing it every other day. Cashmere is solid too. It’s not the plushiest cashmere out there – it will pill more than something twice the price.
But hell if it isn’t actual cashmere. Lots of brands trying to pass off blended cashmere as the real thing these days and M&S doesn’t do that. At £75 it’s cheap enough that you actually wear it instead of buying it and letting it hang in your closet because “you shouldn’t waste cashmere by washing it.” Requires some heavier editing than shirts and undies, but the tailoring section is good too!
Their unstructured blazers in the Autograph line are unexpectedly modern. Nothing super trendy, just generally sleek and contemporary-looking. I grabbed a cotton-linen blend version in navy last summer for £85 and it’s been great for anything that even semi-reQUIRES a jacket.
T-shirts and jeans. Dress shirts and chinos. Doesn’t look out of place with anything in my wardrobe, and that versatility is king when you’re keeping your wardrobe lean.
Here’s what I do with M&S suits that sounds dumb but works really well: buy the best wool suit they have and then take it to a tailor and have them “adjust” it to fit you perfectly. Hell, even after spending another £60 on alterations you’re coming out way ahead of paying retail for comparable-quality suits from, you know, actual menswear brands. Tailoring and construction on the nicer suits is actually really good!
They just need a personal touch with fit. Chinos. Don’t get me started on finding GOOD chinos.
Too casual and they look shit. Too dressy and it’s trying too hard. Fucking infuriating.
M&S had me at hello with their trousers. Super versatile – particularly love their Autograph line. Got a pair each in navy and olive that honestly go with everything else I have.
Fabric has just enough stretch to not feel restrictive without looking like straight-up leggings. Hold shape really well too. Am I saying everything M&S makes is fantastic?
Nope! Some of their “fashion-focused” stuff looks like someone got lost on their way to a Tom James store. Printed shirts are bad, almost across the board.
A lot of their shoes STILL have Dad Socks At A Barbecue energy I just don’t need in my closet. But the basics? The stuff everyone needs?
Shirt, underwear, socks? Solid as hell. Sat next to this guy at a tech meetup last month who works at one of these trendy startups where people wear way too much hypebeast shit and he actually complimented me on my jumper.
Turned out he shops at M&S for the same stuff I do. Wasn’t quite the cool reprieve of discovery I was hoping for when he told me where he got it – nodded, sagely, and said “yeah, their knitwear is actually really good. Got a few myself.” Apparently there’s this whole crew of us who know M&S makes really great basics but refuses to charge designer prices and we’re just quietly living our lives wearing them.
Minimalism isn’t about having the most expensive version of stuff – it’s about having the right version of stuff. And *sometimes* that is the $300 shirt that’s made amazingly well and will last you for decades.
But sometimes it’s the £6 shirt from Marks and Sparks that performs every bit as well as the shirt that costs ten times as much.
Knowing the difference? That’s where you spend your money. Marks and Sparks, and M&S basics specifically have become a cornerstone of my minimal wardrobe.
Not every piece they sell, obv. You still need to curate; still need to pick and choose what works for you. But their best basics are truly fantastic, and allowing myself to buy the bulk of my wardrobe from them has let me more strategically place my clothing budget.
Instead of dropping $200 on a plain white shirt I spend £20 on five of them from M&S, then use the rest of that underwearDesignerBillGatesWouldBuy money on something that truly does deserve to cost ten times as much. Shopping tip: bring a list. Hit up the basics section and ignore everything more trendy or coloured.
Grab a bunch of stuff you think will work, try it on (they run sizing weird between lines sometimes!) and combat that inner-Millennial telling you thrift shopping and M&S don’t belong in the same sentence. Live your best basic wardrobe life.
