Marks and Spencer partners with British School of Fashion

Marks and Spencer has launched an external design studio in

collaboration with The British School of Fashion, as the high street retailer looks to investing in “British fashion leaders of tomorrow”.

As part of the five year partnership, Marks and Spencer has set up a design studio at GCU London’s satellite campus on Fashion Street, Spitalfields, which will provide a “creative space” for all M&S design teams to develop innovative ideas away from the office.

The new studio will complement the retailer’s existing design facilities and several members of the design team will be based permanently at the site.

In addition, the retailer has also launched the ‘M&S Fashion Scholarship’, an annual bursary of 50,000 pounds to be awarded each year to support selected students on fashion courses at the school. The M&S Fashion Scholars will be selected by a panel of M&S and British School of Fashion experts, and will also benefit from M&S mentoring and use of the design space. The first M&S scholars will be selected in February next year.

Commenting on the new studio, Marc Bolland, chief executive at Marks and Spencer said: “M&S Studio @ Fashion Street in Shoreditch builds on M&S’s extensive design expertise, giving our team a vibrant new location from where they can draw inspiration for new collections.

“The M&S Fashion Scholarship is an exciting way for our designers to work with some of the British School of Fashion’s best young design talent and for M&S to invest in the British fashion leaders of tomorrow.”

The studio will also house a digital content hub and an arm of the retailer’s digital publishing team will be based there to document the design team’s work.

Professor Christopher Moore, director of the British School of Fashion added: "Glasgow Caledonian University is delighted to form this ground-breaking partnership with Marks and Spencer. Our British School of Fashion is at the forefront of fashion business thinking and this new initiative clearly demonstrates both creativity and innovation on the part of Marks and Spencer. We are looking forward immensely to working with the M&S team at Fashion Street."