After decades of lagging behind the high-street fashion giants, Marks & Spencer has stepped into its power, staging a slick see-now, buy-now fashion show at the Design Museum during the London Fashion Week spring 2027 showcase.

The food-to-fashion retailer, which has nearly 400 stores and 50 websites around the world, used the show to mark its 100-year anniversary in the clothing business and its push into international markets. Earlier this year it began selling at Nordstrom stores, and online, in the U.S., and has partnered with Zalando in Europe.

Who knew the retailer best known for its cotton knickers, and cozy thermal underwear, could behave like a fashion brand? It tapped Erin O’Connor, Lara Stone, Jodie Kidd and Karen Elson to walk in the show and dressed them in sleek black tuxedos and herringbone suits, embroidered kimono jackets, va-va-voom V-neck sweaters and fluid, wide-leg corduroy trousers.

It had a gilded front row to match its ambitions: Joan Collins, Zandra Rhodes, Katherine Jenkins, David Gandy and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, a stylish politician who could well be Britain’s next prime minister.

They watched as models swished by in kilts and kitten heels, houndstooth puffers, shearling coats and knee-high leather boots, and straight after the show they could buy it all online and at 10 flagship stores across the country.

The store wants to compete on a price level with the fast-fashion retailers, too. Some 50 percent of the new-season collection is 50 pounds or under, which during a cost-of-living crisis here counts for much.

And while this show may be the first, it won’t be the last. A source told WWD that M&S plans to be a regular fixture on the London Fashion Week calendar going forward. It’s not just about knickers anymore.