Photograph your dad from twenty/three years ago. I bet he looks damn good in his suit. Mine does.
It’s 1978, he’s parked up outside his Ford Cortina. He’s wearing a brown suit with lapels so wide he could theoretically achieve powered flight at low altitude with them alone. It’s a Marks & Spencer suit.
I know this because he still talks about it from time to time. “Best suit I ever had, that. Marks & Sparks.
Had it fitted for you when you were born.
Took it me and your brother’s wedding. Three funerals too. Kept me perfectly after ten years.” And there you have it: the M& S tailoring legacy in Britain.
Safe. Reliable. A kind of sartorial Ford Mondeo, if you will.
Average, but in a good way. A suit your dad would be happy for you to wear. The kind of suit that gets you those three magical words from maiden aunts across the country: “Don’t you look smart.” But…is it actually good?
That was the question burning through my mind as I stood, sock-footed, in the changing rooms of the Manchester Arndale Centre branch of Marks & Spencer on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. Replete with carrier bags stuffed full of useless suit carriers I’d dutifully extracted myself from on a mission I had rather grandly entitled ‘The Marks & Spencer Suit Challenge.’ The idea was simple: could Britain’s favourite high street retailer – home of dependable underwear and middle-class microwavable ready meals – actually hold a candle to the costly competition? Was their range of suits that, on the whole, sit somewhere in the £150-£300 price bracket any good when compared to something twice, three times, even four times the price?
The thought had crossed my mind a few times recently, admittedly. Running Sartorial Him we very much focus on the top-end of the menswear market; bespoke tailoring, Italian made-to-measure suits, the kind of clothing where the price makes your eyes involuntarily water just a little. Trust me, I know it’s gorgeous stuff.
I could talk your ear off about why hand-padded, floating canvas lapels are the bee’s knees until you’re blue in the face (I have, ask my ex- girlfriends). But let’s be realistic: the average British male doesn’t drop a grand plus on a suit. They just wanna work, buy something that doesn’t cost much, looks decent and won’t autumn apart after being worn three times.
Seems like a reasonable ask. Which is why I found myself in M&S, mecca of the high street British male. Y’know, where (again, made that stat up but work with me here) approximately 78% of you lot bought your first smart suit.
Standing, once again, in my socks and boxer shorts, waiting to try on £840 worth of their finest tailoring. Having researched the site online beforehand, I picked out three suits that covered each bracket of their offering; entry level, mid range and top of the range. The entry level consisted of their cheapest suit – a Regular Fit Suit in navy – priced at £149.
Mid-range was Step Two: Tailored Fit Italian Wool Suit in charcoal at £299. Top of the range was their Gold Label, The Savile Row Inspired Luxury Suit’ in deep charcoal for…erm…the slightly cheeky price of £399. My aim was to try each of them on; scrutinise them against my professional liking/things-I’ve-learned-working-in-the-menswear-indy-as-quite-a-few-years-standard and then wear the ones I liked best to various events over the following month to gauge their durability IRL.
So, without further ado: Suit No.1: The cheapest suit Mark & Spencer make. Can they really do it for less than a Ben & Jerry’s? Let’s take a look… … First glance.
It feels ok? It’s definitely a suit. The fabric looks…stiff.
It’s polyester with very faint horizontal stripes going down the sides of the chest. Weirdly familiar fabric…oh. Right.
Sweaty school uniform mixed with dreaded grey job interview staple from my early twenties. How could I forget? Anyway.
Enough faffing about – onto the positives. The colour is quite a nice dark navy. It doesn’t veer into that horrible almost-purple that cheaper suits sometimes do.
It’s cut quite loosely which is kind of handy – assuming you’re an average British male with an average British body and not Valkyrie-inside-a-human-shell-shirtless-adonis shape like myself. Designed clearly to fit as many body shapes as possible without causing offence, I assume. Try it on.
Ok, if we’re being honest with each other: it’s a suit that someone who wears a size 40XL can wear. It’s lightly padded shoulders but there’s no canvas reinforcement. That horrible slightly synthetic looking sheen when the fabric catches the changing room lights.
A £149 suit from a well-known high street chain doesn’t look like something the poster boys of this website would choose to endorse because…it’s a £149 suit from a high street chain. …but…it actually doesn’t look terrible. Hang on…I’m sat in these looking at myself in the mirror thinking ‘you know what, if I saw someone wearing this to a wedding I wouldn’t think twice.’ It kind of just….exists. Like jazz playing in the background of a lift.
Not unpleasant, but you barely notice it’s there. Trousers. Lighter material, no lining.
Waistband’s pretty basic. That same synth swoosh as you walk sound effect going on here. Standard rise – not those hipster-genius-condemning low rises of the early noughties and not the trending high-rise look du jour.
Just…normal. They do the job, which is cover your legs in order to appear presentable in formal settings I presume? … …and we’re done. How did I get on?
My initial conclusion: Meh. It’s fine. I wouldn’t turn up to an event in it but equally if I saw someone in the street wearing it I wouldn’t judge them.
If your budget is strictly £150 for a suit then inevitability this is going to be your go-to. But if you can flex those pesky spending muscles just a little more then I’d recommend investing in something better. Onto Suit No.2: The “Mid-rangey but not-too-mid-rangey” Option.
Size/Style: Tailored Fit Italian Wool Suit, Black, off the peg. Price: £299. Materials: 57% polyester, 43% wool.
Nice stuff. First Glance: Better. This actually feels like suit material.
It’s actual wool. It’s a greyish black colour which I’m sure will serve me well on days when I don’t want to look TOO bright but don’t fancy dressing like I’m attending a funeral either. It feels nice to touch.
There’s actually a bit of stretch in there too which can only be a good thing. How does it fit? Much slimmer cut than No.1.
Actual definition at the waist and some substance in the shoulder. Lets hope they’ve translated this into a better fitting jacket. Try it on.
Mmm. Fancy. Jacket’s got a partial canvas which instantly makes it look and feel more premium.
Lapels aren’t trying to escape from my chest like the fucking Bermuda Triangle. It actually feels like it’s got some shape to it, not just draped around me like a carpet. The lining’s a nice looking twill too rather than that horrible shiny slippery stuff they used on No.1.
Trousers. Knee lined which instantly makes them hang better. Proper waistband too, not like No.1’s cycling shorts-esque number.
And side adjusters. I love side adjusters. They’ve gone for a slightly more modern rise which sits firmly on the waist where trouser rises should sit.
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Walk around the room doing your pathetic ‘checking yourself out whilst pretending you’re not’ dance like a terrible gay. Nope. Nothing’s pulling or gapping.
Fits like a dream. Overall verdict: I like it. Bearing in mind I now have a £399 suit to try on I wouldn’t say this is something I’d dash out and buy next payday but it definitely ticks the boxes if you’re looking for a smart suit without breaking the bank.
The fit is markedly better than No.1 and a huge leap in quality. For the price I’d expect that. It also travels remarkably well and survived being chucked over a chair during a few meetings then hastily put back on without creasing too badly.
See below for wine stain that lived its best life then died tragically: Suit No.3: The Full Monty. Let’s see what M&S can do at the high-end of their tailoring game… Size/Style: The Savile Row Inspired Luxury Suit in Deep charcoal, again off the peg. Price: £399 – full of it.
Materials: 100% Wool. It even says ‘Made in Italy’ down the inside of the label. Ooooby.
First Glance: Easy. Higher quality fabric. Just feels nicer.
It’s super lightweight but has more ‘body’ than No.1. There’s a subtle herringbone pattern going on here that gives it an extra bit of depth and catches the light nicely. How does it fit?
Same deal as No.2 – slimmed down from No.1’s Michelangelo’s-David-of-a-fit considerably. Good shoulder definition and seems to contour round my chest better than the mid-tier option. Try it on.
Wow. This is…..a whole different ball game. Fully canvassed jacket which means it’s got a layer of canvassing sewn through the chest and lapels allowing them to mould to your shape over time.
Shoulders are subtly roped too – another trademark of traditional British tailoring. The details are spot on; dual vents, subtle pick stitching on the lapels and functioning sleeve buttons (albeit a mock trendgasm away from actual Surgeon’s Cuffs but let’s not get carried away here). Trousers.
Fully lined. Actual curtained waistband. Much higher rise than the other two, sitting comfortably and properly at my waist where decent tailoring rises should.
How do I look? Bloody impressive if I do say so myself. Yes it’s M&S.
Yes I spent the best part of a fortnight’s salary on this probably. But does it look and feel a million times better than Suit No.1? You bet your boots it does.
The Results: So, after much deliberation (and a few holes burnt through my trusty Keith Henderson chinos from forgetting about dangerous little sauce stains) I opted to take the mid-range wool number and the big gun home with me. Seeing as I was taking the plunge and buying them instead of wearing them and sending them back like little BritishTailoringReviewBootcamp.commandos I thought I’d put them through their paces. I took the mid-range with me to two work meetings, a book launch and a dinner where I shamelessly spilled red wine down my sleeve whilst marvelling at how such a fine substance could be reborn as a Burberry-like stain with the ease of some kind of Christopher NikNewsFashionDirectorWizardry (Can’t mention him around here anymore can we….?) – occupational hazard of being a glorified alcoholic with a press card I’m sure you’ve all experienced.
The M&S Luxury Suit had a couple of fancy outings; a wedding (where I was magically stood next to a guy wearing Thom Sweeney – more on him later), an awards do and a very sweaty, panicked first meeting with my girlfriend’s parents. How did they hold up? Better than I thought to be honest.
The mid-range wool suit was everything I hoped it would be; a proper workhorse. Travelled brilliantly with barely a crease. Went from suitcase to wearing with barely a hiccup and survived what felt like being stapled to my chair during work meetings.
Washed well and apart from the aforementioned wine incident which you can see below actually looked like new even after a month of harsh wear. Even the M&S number passed the boyfriend approval test with my girl’s dad asking where I got it from – a definite stamp of approval if you ask me. As for the luxury suit…it really exceeded my expectations.
I genuinely thought I’d struggle to justify the price but wearing it to the wedding certainly proved me wrong. I found myself literally stood next to dudes rocking Tom Ford, Thom Sweeney et al. Trust me when I say my suit was in no way sticking out.
Now, someone who was wearing Thom Sweeney actually commented on it when I told him it was M&S. Expecting some flex-money elitist pomp I was met with genuine surprise then intrigue. “Really? That’s fucking smart.
It looks way more expensive than that.” Nice. Now Thom Sweeney wasn’t having me on. Ask me how I know… I also mentioned it to my girlfriend’s father.
Yes, the same man who I’d been forewarned judges people in an instant on their appearance and then permanently whenever he feels like it. He actually asked where I bought it, paused when I said Marks & Spencer, and replied “Good. Sensible.
None of that ridiculous designer stuff that falls apart at the seams.” Legit ripped the suit off me for a good old fondle when we got back to her house. Moral of the story? If your mammary grandparent wears M&S suits, you know it’s good.
TL:DR; 1. The budget range is budget. It’ll do but if you’re wearing suits with any frequency, step up at least one tier.
2. The mid-tier is great value for money. The quality leap from budget to mid is huge and, in my opinion, justifies the price difference.
3. The Luxury range is fantastic. Sure, it’s not going to rival an actual Savile Row suit costing twice/three times as much but then, nor should it.
For £400 you get a suit that looks smarter than you have any right to expect. If your local tailors charges you £2,000 for the same level of quality and service then by all means knock yourself out but I can’t see it. So, there you have it: M&S’s tailoring ranges dissected and analysed for the cruel world of internet critique.
A quick summary of all my findings: Will M&S suits stand up to wearing and washing like normal human beings? Better than you’d think. They may not hold up as well as the more premium end of the market but if you follow their care instructions to the T (ie. get your wife/female partner to wash them for you) they’ll last you a good few seasons.
How do they compare to the competition? See point above. If you’re after the very best then you’ll head straight to your local tailor or bookmaker and hand them your bank details without a second thought.
If you’re looking for great quality with the reassurance of being able to return it if your girlfriend secretly shrunk it in the wash then M&S should be your first port of call. … Final Thoughts … Would I wear an M&S suit on the runway for fashion week? Unlikely. Would I wear one to shoot an exclusive photoshoot for Vogue?
Nah. Would I wear one to my wedding if I was the groom?
Hell yes.
In fact…I just might borrow Dad’s old number and do exactly that. For what it’s worth, the world of menswear doesn’t need another ‘Common Mans Tailoring Showdown’ YouTube video. We get it – Aldi chops Marks & Spencer’s balls.
But does M&S make a half-decent suit that most dudes in the UK can afford without selling a kidney on the black market? If that’s what you’re looking for then then you’re safe shopping with them. Trust me.
I live here. …. Oh and one final thing; when your dad was winning awards for being the ‘Best Dressed Politician in Britain’ back in 19fuckings78 wearing his trusty M&S number… He was wearing that exact same suit. He still has it.
Guess who still thinks it’s the best suit he’s ever owned. Yep. ….
