It’s 6: 47 AM on Wednesday and my toddler daughter is still asleep (miracle of miracles) so I’m kneeling on my kitchen floor refresh-refreshing M&S’s website as my coffee grows colder. And by refreshing their website what I really mean is that I’m chasing that needle-in-haystack drop of the camel wool coat from M&S Collection that I’ve been waiting three weeks for. The coat that sold out in about .00675 seconds when it first launched and left me staring blankly at my laptop screen in a state of shock not normally reserved for inanimate objects.
Allow me to explain: Did I buy it? OF COURSE I DID. Bought it AND the ivory one too.
But only because I have it down to a fine art at this point. It’s like I’m training for the Narcisistic M&S Restock Olympics with how early I’ve been waking up to stalk their website and phone notifications the past few months.
Spare minutes during Emma’s nap times are spent refreshing pages and refreshing…you get it.
My husband doesn’t speak to me. But hey guys, when M&S drops goods this good at prices this low, a woman has to do what a woman has to do. There are certain pieces from M&S Collection – and by certain pieces, I mean the ones that knock your dang socks off, not the nice-but-not great ones – that have become this weird love affair where you literally need to pounce or else you’ll spend the next however many months mourning what could’ve been.
It happened to me with a leather blazer TWO YEARS ago that still haunts my dreams. Dreams, people. I dream about this stupid blazer that I failed to purchase when it was available.
Stalked their websites, called three stores to see if anyone had it in my size. Nothing. * insert dramatic wailing noise here* THEY SOLD OUT AND I DIE A LITTLE BIT INSIDE. Buy Why do certain M&S Collection pieces have this effect?
Why can’t I just…take a breath and order it when it restocks like a normal human being? Well, my friends, it’s because M&S has legit mastered the high-low shopping game. They understand that there are certain basics we ALL want to wear…but only when they’re done REALLY well.
Done well enough that you don’t mind paying full price for them (usually!). And when they do it right, oh sweetheart, they really do it right. It used to be that Marks and Sparks was my go-to for boring work pants my mom took me to for my eighth grade job interview at Dairy Queen.
Now it’s where I surreptitiously browse when the editor I’m working with hints that she’d rather be doing something else. NEWS ALERT: She’s wearing that cool leather jacket from? *pause for suspense* MARKS AND SPARKS. “No way! Really?
From just M&S?” We whisper like it’s some kind of secret. I’ve noticed trends over the past year or so with what sells out instantly vs what they drop that’s perfectly great, yet we all let languish on their site because it didn’t sell out the second it dropped. Spoiler alert: they tend to be the classics done just well enough that you feel cool wearing them but not so trendy that you only wear them for running errands.
You know? The things that you should (and WILL) spend more on at “actual” brands but refuse to because t’s just M&S and they do it so well? ! Time for a break down.
OUTERWEAR. Leather, y’all. M&S drops leather pieces every.fucking.autumn and they fly off the shelves faster than my children tear through our house when they wake up from naptime.
Particularly leather blazers. It’s gotten to the point where my leather-phobic SIL in LA actually sent me a frantic Facebook message last year looking for any leads on the elusive M&S leather blazer she’s been hunting for TWO YEARS. She’s probably creeped over here and saw I got it in ivory too so…HI SIL. (And to all the M&S employees who are inevitably Googling themselves right now in hopes of seeing what I’m mentioning them for: hi, ya beautiful soldiers of fabulous.) Speaking of leather, the quality is as good as it gets for the price.
Seriously, I double and triple check that I didn’t pay more for other things elsewhere. It’s buttery soft and gets more worn in beautifully, the hardware is strong enough that it doesn’t look cheap three months later, and the cuts are current without being “trying too hard at my kid’s school pickup.” Compliments on my leo- blazer ? CONSTANT.
One woman at Emma’s soccer game last fall even asked me where I got it, truly believing it was an AllSaints. When I told her Marks and Sparks she grabbed my arm and said I needed to contact her immediately if I ever see it back in stock. Wools sell out similarly every year.
Last winter there was this navy double breasted number that I saw on at least three different women on my Starbucks run one Monday morning. Is that truly conceivable? I shop the same places you do, people.
Same time wake-up calls. It’s possible. Beyond being well made, what sets these products apart from things you likely spend more on at other places?
They don’t try to hard to be trendy. They’re always classics that you can wear for years to come without thinking twice. And that, my friends, is exactly what you need when your clothing budget is usually toilet paper and elastic-waisted leggings that also function as your husband’s underwear when they mysteriously disappear from the drawer.
Knitwear is fiercely competitive, especially cashmere. I once did an extensive touch comparison of M&S Collection cashmere to options that were triple the price. (*cough*Courtesy of me holding up sweaters at Nordstrom to my face while “browsing” for my kids*cough*) Was it better? Sure.
But not enough to pay 3x what M&S is asking for an equally soft sweater you’ll wear just as much. Not surprisingly, the basics tend to sell out first. Amazingly soft cashmere crew necks in every color under the sun usually sell out within days of launching, sometimes hours if Kim K decides to mention she wore hers lastnight.
Same goes for the color options that aren’t the basic camel or ivory – those always sell out first too, even if they’re oddly shaped or shaded. My favorite purchases are almost always things that sound boring AF but execute them so well that you forget how cheap they actually are. Not the flashy bright sweater, or the crazy knit – the perfect grey crew neck that hangs like it was tailored specifically for your body.
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The black turtleneck that doesn’t drown you in fabric but actually skims your torso in all the right places. That adorable navy V-neck that makes every other shirt in your wardrobe look expensive by comparison. Purchases like these may not send you straight to Instagram, but I think you’ll enjoy the hunt (and subsequent victory) of snagging wardrobe basics done RIGHT.
Don’t even get me started on bags. Every season they release at least one bag that seems to achieve Holy Grail status and sends women around the world scrambling to Instagram and Facebook DM each other asking if anyone has seen it restock. Last fall it was this gorgeous deep burgundy shoulder bag with an immaculate-simple silhouette.
I watched that bag sell out and restock FOUR TIMES before I finally pulled the trigger. Spring 2021 it was a woven leather tote in THE PERFECT shade of tan that had women Facebook calling each other in different states just to see if someone had seen it at their local store. The secret?
They don’t look cheap. Like, obviously cheap where you can tell it’s a dupe from things you could spend ten times as much on. They actually execute on their own vision of what a great bag should look like.
I’ve had my camel leather tote mistaken for more expensive brands so many times I lost count. Fun fact about said leather tote? It was ALSO from Marks and Sparks.
Best flex ever when a fellow mom at Emma’s school asked me where I got it and I told her. “YOU SERIOUSLY BOUGHT THAT AT MARKS AND SPARKS?!? !” She asked incredulously. Um, yes. Yes I did.
Shoes are almost as crazzy. Their leather loafers have turned into a full-on cottage industry of stalking websites and refresh-refresh-refreshing their product pages. Last year it was these black leather loafers with a super thick sole that people literally called the customer service line multiple times a day to inquire about restocks.
M&S employees actually refunded my phone call because the poor woman on the other end of the line thought I was calling to return a pair… I hadn’t even bought them yet?! The kitten heel slingbacks were just as insane last summer. Bam.
Gone. Restocked erratically in random sizes. Waiting lists in Facebook groups formed to trade sizing/oops bought sightings.
Lightweight linen for summer is another category that sells out instantly. And I don’t mean your basic beach-y stuff that gathers dust on their site all season long. I’m talking semi-structured stuff you can actually wear to do life, not just jet off to Hawaii for.
A linen blazer they sold a few summers ago caused an actual riot on their Instagram when it sold out the first time. Women were tagging their friends in the comments, asking strangers if they had seen it in their size. Screenshots of sold out shopping carts became a communal sport.
Speaking of that linen blazer, it also launched their line of slip skirts into manic buying popularity. It started with a simple black, bias cut midi that I still see all over my neighborhood two years later. Fast forward to this season and they’ve expanded to seasonal colors that also sell out within DAYS of dropping.
Fun fact about slip skirts? Bias cut everything is amore. It LOOKS easy to wear but is actually incredibly difficult to get right without twisting all weird around your body after an hour.
M&S nails it every.freaking.time. Proof that these pieces have wide appeal? Mid squeeing over how soft the cashmere was on a sweater I was trying on, I spotted a girl browsing the same section.
College-aged on one side of me and what could only be described as “my mom’s age” on the other. All three of us staring intently at the same grey crew neck, contemplating if we should chance buying it. All three of us knowing that if we didn’t buy it RIGHT THEN AND THERE there was a 95% chance it would be sold out by the time we checked out.
Guess who ended up buying the exact same sweater? ALL OF US. I overheard the woman explain to the sales assistant that she had been wanting that sweater but was too scared it’d sell out, so she waited.
BIGGEST regret of her shopping trip, she said.
How can you spot these future sellouts before they sell out? Here’s the things I’ve learned after WAY too many misses: 1.) Quality of materials – leather, cashmere, quality wools and linens sell out WAY faster than their synthetic counterparts usually.
Let’s be real, when it comes down to it we all know when we’re getting a good deal on naturally-made, quality materials. 2.) Silhouette/Sleeve type. Fangirls over things that have slightly more interesting proportions –> slightly more volume in the bust, the perfect oversized fit, a subtly updated classic silhouette.
We love things that feel current, but not so trendy you can only wear it one way. 3.) Color doesn’t sell out first like you’d think. Sure, that burnt orange sweater was cute, but YOU KNOW that classic camel knit is selling out HOURS before that guy does.
Newsflash: basic pieces done RIGHT are hard to come by. And when you find them, stock up! Armed with my laundry list of what I know sells out every.time I purchase I will admit that I’ve become a teensy bit much to shop with. “IS THE LEATHER BLAZER BACK? ?” I’ll text you at 7AM before begrudgingly checking myself.
But hey, at least I can prevent my friends from having to suffer the deep despair that comes with falling in love with a piece from M&S Collection only to watch it sell out before you can make a decision. Now, IF you’ll excuse me I have a whole summer’s worth of M&S stalking to do. Happy Hunting.
