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I love John Lewis. You love John Lewis. We all love John Lewis. It’s a national institution which we take so much for granted that we’d only truly miss it if it was gone.
It’s also a bellwether. When everything is right with John Lewis, everything is right with the world.
It’s not, of course, but for a certain type of woman – possibly midlife, possibly a parent, definitely time-pressed – a trip to John Lewis can make life feel more manageable.
The stores are calm and ordered, the customer service is unparalleled and the returns policy is generous and clear. You don’t go to John Lewis for surprises: you have enough of those already. You go for solutions, be they for your family, your kitchen, your garden or your wardrobe.
Every retailer purports to offer ‘wardrobe solutions’, that holy grail of fashion that ensures you can stumble out of bed, reach into your closet and pluck out a deftly chosen outfit that makes you look instantly better.
On the high street, competition has never been fiercer – not least from arch rival Marks & Spencer, whose womenswear has been enjoying rave reviews in recent seasons
Much as we all love John Lewis, in the battle to win over our wardrobes, it has its work cut out.
So there’s a lot riding on the store’s new Spring/Summer collection that was unveiled on Wednesday.
John Lewis’s new Spring/Summer collection that was unveiled on Wednesday, including a white cotton crop top seen here on the model
As for which weapons the 162-year-old retailer is deploying in its bid for British wardrobe space this spring, the answer is is ‘optimism and colour pops’, according to its design director Queralt Ferrer, gesturing at what she calls ‘an army of mannequins’ wearing sprightly spring hues.
‘I’m not a colour person, as you can see,’ Ferrer tells me, who at the launch is mainly wearing black. ‘But you gravitate to colour, especially in summer. We’ve had so many neutral seasons that having this kind of optimism – beautiful colours like red, dusty yellows and pink – brings a little bit of joy into your wardrobe.’
My eye is first drawn to a smart satin jacket, £350, in the same colour of green as Kiera Knightly’s famous slip dress from the 2007 film Atonement.
Emerald green has proved to be a perennially popular dress colour ever since, and this is its outerwear equivalent. It’s a clever idea, and comes with matching trousers, £195.
Both are by Amanda Wakeley, one of 14 new labels joining the retailer’s existing 100-strong womenswear brands on offer for spring. A favourite of the Princess of Wales, Wakeley is no slouch at providing elegant wardrobe solutions, and should prove a popular draw.
Of the other 13 other new brands, it’s unlikely that core customers will have heard of many including Martin Margiela’s cult label MM6; the sleek Australian label St Agni; and Mother, the premium denim brand worn by Taylor Swift, Reese Witherspoon and the Duchess of Sussex. But this doesn’t matter: what matters is whether they buy.
I’m interested to know the criteria John Lewis uses when making its selection. Is their customer price-sensitive? At what price do they balk? They also stock Barbour, Ralph Lauren and Maxmara, all of which come with fairly hefty price tags, yet Ferrer says they consistently sell well.
‘We bring in brands that we think our customer will relate to,’ says Ferrer, who was M&S’s womenswear design director between 2013 and 2018, then Massimo Dutti, before joining John Lewis in 2022. ‘But we also want to stretch her a little bit.
Laura Craik picks her 10 must-haves from the new collection, including a pair of taupe suede boots and a camel trench coat
The market is saturated with options – what becomes increasingly important is the curation. The hope is that she’ll come in for brands she knows and recognises, but will also discover something new.’
One brand customers will certainly have heard of is Topshop, the beleaguered but well-loved label that ruled British women’s wardrobes throughout the late eighties to the mid 2000s. After going bust in 2021, it was bought by e-tailer Asos, where it has languished online ever since. Not any more. Thanks to John Lewis, Topshop will now be available to buy in all 36 of its stores nationwide.
Which is good news for older or more timid customers who like to try before they buy, a particularly useful factor when it comes to the minefield that is buying jeans.
Denim was always one of Topshops’s strengths, and standouts for spring include its well-loved, much-missed Joni and Jamie jeans, as well as a black faux leather jacket, £80.
Amid the 650 womenswear, menswear and childrenswear brands that make up the retailer’s offer for spring, its in-house labels, John Lewis and And/Or, can get a little overlooked.
While rival M&S started selling third-party brands such as Joules, Nobody’s Child and Hobbs in 2021, its own brand very much still dominates the shop floor. This is far less the case at John Lewis – which, on the evidence of the new spring collection, is a shame.
Every retailer purports to offer ‘wardrobe solutions’, that holy grail of fashion that ensures you can stumble out of bed, reach into your closet and pluck out a deftly chosen outfit that makes you look instantly better – much like this camel co-ord set
Ferrer describes John Lewis’ eponymous brand as ‘casual but sophisticated’, explaining that the design team focused on offering customers a capsule wardrobe of elevated basics.
The clothes look good, but significantly, they also feel good: a pale pink leather jacket, £299, is pleasingly buttery for the price; a white linen shirt, £109, is reassuringly opaque (never a given with linen), and a pair of wide-leg jeans, £79, feel endearingly comfy.
The design team sources as much fabric as possible from Europe (leather is sourced from Turkey), while most of the manufacturing takes place in Portugal, Spain or France.
At the preview, some of the mannequins are sporting Chanel handbags, like plastic Anna Wintours. These are courtesy of a partnership with pre-loved fashion retailer Sign of the Times, which since 2024 has offered John Lewis customers the chance to pick up a classic Chanel quilt bag alongside their three-pack of knickers – for around half the price of a new one.
Also on offer are pre-loved totes from Gucci, Mulberry and Louis Vuitton. You can see the appeal for skittish customers who might feel too intimidated to buy a second-hand designer handbag on less trusted platforms. At John Lewis, they know they won’t be duped into buying one that’s overpriced or fake.
Beyond selling competitively priced leather, denim and tailoring (three categories that are doing particularly well, apparently), what John Lewis is really selling is trust.
In an oversaturated retail landscape where women can buy whatever they want whenever they want it, John Lewis’s famous ‘never knowingly undersold’ slogan has never felt more important. Trust is hard to earn, and even harder to keep.
While some items in the new spring collection may prove too expensive or challenging (some of the barrel-leg trousers are a bit too barrel-legged for comfort), no retailer can be all things to all people.
What it can be, however, is a trusted source of well-priced, responsibly-manufactured clothes, by brands both familiar and new. The secret sauce lies in the edit.
That every John Lewis store also offers a personal styling service (for which demand at grew by eight per cent last year) also helps its customers select the best edit to suit their busy lives.
‘The biggest compliment a customer could pay us would be that they got what they wanted, and that they love wearing it,’ says Ferrer. ‘We want them to be confident about wearing what they buy from us, and we want them to come back because they trust us. Trust is so important.’
Loyal customers are the dream. With losses across John Lewis and Waitrose nearly tripling in the first half of 2025 to £88m, fans will be hoping that in 2026, John Lewis is starts delivering again on the fashion front. And this collection is certainly a good star.
