Heidi Klum has joined forces with Lidl, but how well do supermarkets do for fashion?

Supermarkets have long been a part of the clothing retail sector, their convenient market positioning gives them an advantage over other fashion retailers because consumers are visiting their stores for groceries, making it much easier to entice them once they are in the shop.

The UK’s biggest supermarket retailers, particularly Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda have their own established fashion brands, named TU, F&F and George respectively.

Established as a stand alone brand, George, which was started by Asda in 1989 has a large offering for Women, Men, Children, Baby - including footwear, lingerie, swimwear, accessories, maternity and sportswear and was the fifth largest clothing brand in 2016.

Clothes shopping can easily be combined with grocery shopping

Sainsbury’s introduced TU in 2004, to expand their previous small offering of clothing, now with a large offering for Women, Men, Children, Baby, footwear, lingerie, accessories, school uniform. As of 2017, Sainsbury’s the sixth largest clothing retailer by volume in the UK, with a 4.3 percent rise in year on year sales.

Tesco’s F&F, Florence and Fred was launched in 2001 and has a similar offering for Women, Men, Children, Baby - footwear, school uniform. Though they also stock high street brands such as Wallis, Jack Jones, AX Paris and Speedo, releasing new stock each season to fit with the fashion industry schedule. They also have own brand lines including F&F Active, F&F Sensitive sole and F&F Signature.

Other supermarkets including Aldi and Lidl, have a different approach to clothing, with weekly drops of items including mens, womens, childrens and footwear - including high heels, walking shoes, wellies and other sportswear.

Morrisons, as one of the UK’s largest supermarkets, launched their clothing brand Nutmeg back in 2013, following in the footsteps of other big supermarkets. However, only currently offering clothes for Women, Children, and baby, including school uniform and sportswear, the supermarket still has a long way to grow before reaching competitors numbers.

Lidl are not the first supermarket to have a celebrity involved in their clothing marketing, Sainsbury’s currently has ‘Gok Wan Edits’, and Asda have taken on Made in Chelsea’s Louise Thompson for a swimwear campaign. Perhaps not taking these ideas to the catwalk however, time will tell if Lidl’s New York fashion week show will prove popular and persuade other supermarkets to follow suit.

Also read: Heidi Klum to debut Lidl collection at New York Fashion Week

Screenshot courtesy of George website