High Street Meets Streetwear

There’s something going on at M&S. The stalwart of the British high street has been on the tip of many a fashion editor’s tongue of late, is preparing to make its London Fashion Week schedule debut this September and, now, has recruited cult London streetwear label Aries for its latest designer collaboration. Your grandmother’s M&S, this is not.

Following its sell-out collections with Bella Freud, M&S could easily have continued down the path of polished British heritage. Instead, it has taken a rather sharper turn. Founded by Sofia Prantera, Aries has built its following through a collision of streetwear, outsider art, subculture and irreverent graphics. On paper, the two occupy very different corners of the British fashion landscape.

The 26-piece womenswear and menswear collection digs into the M&S archive, specifically the St Michael label that once appeared across practically everything the retailer sold and has since found a second life among vintage hunters. Rather than simply reproducing it, Aries has treated the archive as raw material, remixing St Michael crests, the angel motif, Penny Bazaar coins and old sporting emblems alongside its own Temple graphics.

For Prantera, the archive raid is personal. “Growing up, M&S was part of family life,” she says. “Every summer we would visit from Italy, and it was where I bought my lambswool jumpers.” Spencer Bear, meanwhile, was originally given to her by her grandmother.

It’s an unexpectedly cool collision, but also a canny one. At a moment when the distinction between high street, archive fashion and cult label is becoming increasingly porous, M&S seems more willing than ever to have some fun with its own history. And if its forthcoming LFW appearance wasn’t enough to make the fashion crowd pay attention, Aries probably will.

The collection will be available to shop on Thursday the 20th of August HERE