What’s going on at John Lewis SS25?

I haven’t had the opportunity to do many retail updates this year and yet I know from the survey I did in January that it’s your favourite department store so let’s have a look at what’s going on at John Lewis. I do have a new season try-on today as promised but first I thought I’d give you a quick update on what’s been happening since Peter Ruis was appointed Executive Director last spring. I’m sure you’ll remember the excitement surrounding his arrival in the press because he’s a retailer who’s led a number of brands including Jigsaw and Anthropologie through turnaround and he also has experience on the homeware side from working with M&S and Dunelm. He’s a man who looks as if he has his finger on the pulse when it comes to style don’t you think?

There have already been a lot of changes at the Oxford Street branch which has been completely refurbished but when I go into the regional stores it feels as if change is slow so before diving into new season style I wanted to find out more about what’s happening behind the scenes. What I discovered is that we’ll start to see the revival soon; as a brand the point that they’re at now is a bit like the stage of a building project when the seemingly invisible work on the foundations and underpinning are nearing completion and the structure starts to go up quickly. So let’s look in more detail at what’s going on at John Lewis.

The reason behind the retail world’s celebration of Peter Ruis’s return was that he already had form at John Lewis. As buying and brand director from 2005 to 2013 he was responsible for the last turnaround when JL went from being a place that you only considered for homeware to a becoming a credible fashion player. He established the much loved Christmas ads and placed the brand at the heart of the British high street. Why was he so successful? In my opinion it’s because he took time to understand the customer. So many retailers get that wrong because they focus on selling the stuff they choose to buy. Instead they should be working out what the customer wants and reflecting that in their ranges… and then making the stores a place that those customers really want to visit. It’s a simple principle and yet if you think about it you can see how many store groups continue to operate with a ‘product first’ strategy.

So when Peter Ruis returned, his first focus was on customer service and almost immediately he reintroduced ‘never knowingly undersold.’ There’s now a return to making sure that there are plenty of staff on the shop floor and that they’re the product experts they always were. A multi-million pound budget is being invested nationally into store refurbishment starting with ground floor beauty halls and then moving on from there. As I mentioned, the £6.5 million upgrade of the Oxford Street branch has been completed and it’s working as a test bed for new shop floor formats as the management team observes how well it works for customers.

Refurb projects are now underway at High Wycombe and Cheadle. Material build projects like this take time though so to keep things interesting for customers in the interim they’re introducing lots of new brands, both in store and online.

For SS25, 49 new brands have launched in womenswear and they’re all interesting ones. Some of them such as Marc Jacobs and The Kooples are high end, indicating that John Lewis has higher fashion aspirations than before and there’s now a dedicated premium brands section to browse on the website. There are also a number of new collabs which bring exclusive designs from some of JL’s best loved labels including a knitwear collection with John Smedley and the second season of John Lewis X AWAKE Mode. Homeware is having a revamp and there are 30 new brands arriving there including West Elm, Harlequin x Henry Holland and an exclusive JL collab with Sanderson.

I’m delighted to see that they’ve brought the homeware publication back again in a new format, Foundation, after finding that GenX and Baby Boomers still love to browse through a magazine with a cup of coffee. I know I’m biased but the internet can’t match the pleasure to be had from a well designed store magazine. It’ll be sent out twice a year to MyJL members (although the sleep shopping on the cover sounds like a dangerous habit!).

To me though, the thing that really illustrates Peter Ruis’s shopkeeping experience is the introduction of a number of new services that sit under the John Lewis umbrella but are run by experts in their field. It’s such a clever way of extending the department store concept of ‘everything under one roof’ and making customers’ lives easier.

Each store now has an alterations and repair service for clothes and handbags, you can take in curtains, rugs and duvets too – even if you didn’t originally buy them at John Lewis they will restore or alter them for you. They recently managed to restore a Chanel bag to near new condition within a few days. All you have to do is take whatever needs cleaning, altering or mending to your nearest JL store, the service is run by Johnsons, details here.

Waterstones has been invited to join JL as specialist book partners with their first new book department now in the Oxford Street store. Over 20,000 books are available covering fiction, non-fiction and children’s titles and you can also browse online. An experienced bookselling team is on hand to offer recommendations if you’re looking for something new or specific and there will also be a programme of author events and signings in store later in the year.

After noticing that sales of record players and turntables were up by 17%, John Lewis has introduced a new vinyl department in Peter Jones, Cheadle, Edinburgh and Bluewater (not vinyl floors by the way – records and LPs). It’s managed by Rough Trade who have pulled together a carefully curated and very interesting collection of iconic albums – both modern and classic. Since the vinyl department launched, sales of record players have increased by further 46%.

This month a new Jamie Oliver cookery school is opening in the Oxford Street branch hosting over 40 different cookery classes and offering free lessons for children in school holidays. It will be Jamie Oliver’s flagship and there will be the option to try out all kinds of new cooking styles from making your own pasta to mastering Korean food. There will be a new cafe attached to it too. You can be one of the first to book a cookery session here.

When you look across these new departments you get a sense that the world is changing. They’re all centred around hands-on experience – the joy of putting a proper record on, sitting down with a book, cooking something from scratch or repairing something you love. The fact that John Lewis is investing in opening these departments suggests to me that we’re going beyond a trend with nostalgia, there’s actually a reversal. We’re realising that technology can’t satisfy our every need and some things were better as they were.

Recent research done amongst JL customers has shown that people are enjoying shopping in stores again. 51% of people said that they saw in-store shopping as a social activity, a way of enjoying time with friends or family – not because they want their advice on what to buy but because they see it as a day out, often combined with sitting down for something to eat together too. John Lewis is responding quickly to this returning footfall by making sure that the stores are where the fun and the interesting finds are going to be.

There’s so much going on all of a sudden that when they invited me to do a new season style edit I had to think carefully about what to focus on. Part of me was keen to play around with some of the more esoteric new brands such as Sister Jane or AWAKE Mode X John Lewis. Looking at these press shots it looks as if the AWAKE Mode collab is really finding its feet this season, it feels like Me+Em +++.

It would have photographed beautifully if I’d decided to dedicate this post to it. However with my strategic head on, to really get a feel for the direction that John Lewis is heading in with regard to fashion it made more sense for me to look predominantly at their own label ranges. After all these are the lines that are created for us, their core customer and therefore that’s where the true spirit of JL should be encapsulated. So I thought I’d see how they’ve picked up on the season’s key trends within their own collections and by the way hasn’t this week been just another gift? I don’t want to jinx it but this spring surely has to be the best one ever in the UK – weatherwise at least!

I’m starting with crochet which is a trend that’s been around for a while now. It first appeared in Gen Z’s crop tops and bags but now it’s become mainstream. It makes sense because since lockdown most people have been resisting a return to tight, structured clothing; crochet is comfortable to wear and yet it has great texture so it adds interest to outfits. I first spotted this skirt styled like this in a magazine and I couldn’t believe it was from John Lewis.

So I went into the Newcastle store to track it down and discovered that it came with a matching top. As you know there’s nothing I love more than column dressing so I immediately picked it for my try-on post. It’s great because the top would work separately paired with jeans or trousers and the skirt would look good dressed down as in the picture above with a contrasting top and sandals, you could even just add a crisp white t-shirt. I’m wearing a medium in both pieces and they’re true to size.

Crochet top; Crochet skirt; Bag with interchangeable strap

The top passes my test for cut – the armholes have been gently curved rather than set straight so they don’t add visual width to the top of your arms and I love the scalloping on the hem of both pieces. It’s made from cotton in a weighty knit but I didn’t find it too warm to wear because the crochet holes leave plenty of room for ventilation. In winter you could add an insulating underskirt and wear this outfit with boots and a long sleeved top underneath the vest, it’s very versatile.

Would you get good wear out of it? I think so because of the possibility for wearing the pieces separately. It’s multi-seasonal and it can be styled formally or casually, you could wear it with heels for an event or just with slippers for relaxing with the papers at home. A great buy.

Crochet top; Crochet skirt; Bag with interchangeable strap

In a conversation with a stylist recently I was told that my style personality has shifted quite a bit since I started writing this blog. At the beginning I was very much a True Classic, as I grew in confidence I morphed into a Dramatic Classic, still with structure to my clothes but with a lot more colour and texture. Now, it seems, I’m heading towards a Flamboyant Natural and it makes sense that my change in style has paralleled my changing work life. When I began this blog I spent a lot of time working with very corporate businesses, I then veered back to my retail heartland. Both of those phases involved a lot of face to face meetings and what I wore really mattered – it really helped me to win the contract if I looked the part. Since 2020 though most of my meetings are video calls so like most people, I’ve found that my outfits have relaxed.

Unlike the Classic family, Flamboyant Naturals can take a bit of Boho and I find I’m enjoying playing around with this season’s Boho comeback. For me though there has to be an element of fit, usually at the shoulders and the waist. This outfit here is as far as I’d take it, I do love a suede and soft denim combo though. So let’s talk about the pieces here. The standout is the suede jacket which is part of the new drop. It has a swing back so it’s a little bit more elevated than your standard trucker jacket with a smarter profile from behind. The suede is good quality and it costs about £100 less than most similar jackets that are around at the moment. You’ll see me styling it again further down. In terms of fit I’m wearing a 12 and it feels right.

Suede jacket; Denim blue cotton jumper; Patch pocket jeans; Sunglasses

I would never have picked this jumper for my edit if I hadn’t seen it in store – the online pictures just don’t do it justice. It’s waist length but because it has dramatic raglan sleeves that are almost batwing, it doesn’t feel cropped and so it sits really well with a skirt or trousers that have width. The upper volume means that it’ll work well for you regardless of bust size. It’s made from a lovely, soft, summer cotton knit and it also comes in sky blue or butter yellow – perfect for a cooler, relaxed summer day and it’s great value. The one thing to bear in mind is that it comes up big, I’m wearing a size small here, a medium would have been enormous.

As for the jeans, they feel like your softest. most loved pair – the ones you turn to at the end of a hard day because they’re just so comfortable that they feel like an old friend. Unlike the other patch pocket flares I’ve tried, these have a pressed crease detail which is leg lengthening. With the pockets and the whiskering on the hips they’re really flattering – an absolute ten out of ten from me for these if you can get hold of a pair, they’re getting great reviews and selling fast. As far as fit is concerned they’re true to size, I’m wearing a size 12 and they’re exactly right.

Suede jacket; Denim blue cotton jumper; Patch pocket jeans; Sunglasses

I really like the slightly sporty, Jackie Kennedy version of preppy marine that’s around this season and I’ve been wanting to try this cotton top for ages. It’s a soft cream colour with raspberry and navy tipping and as you can see, it’s designed to be worn with a higher waistline. I’d say that shorter tops like this are here to stay because so many people find that high rise jeans and trousers help to pull the midriff in. They apply the rule of two thirds to your outfits as well, avoiding the cut in two look that doesn’t do anybody any favours. It’s another good value piece and it’s true to size, I’d have preferred the V to be cut slightly lower than it is but it isn’t a dealbreaker.

You’ll see that I’ve switched to try a different pair of flares because I felt this top needed to be paired with a darker wash so we’re out of own brand territory here. I’ve been interested in trying these ribcage bell flares for a while and the first thing I’d say is that they really aren’t very flared so they’re good if you want something that feels more like a bootcut.

Preppy polo top; Softly flared jeans

They’re dressier than the ones I’m wearing above so you don’t get the visual benefits of the distressing but you do have a smarter look. And despite being called ribcage they don’t come up any higher than other pairs I’ve tried. If I were choosing between the two, the first pair would be a no brainer – they’re not as expensive and I prefer the fit (purely because of the patch pockets) but if you like a more classic, streamlined style I’d recommend these. I’m wearing a 29 inch here and they’re true to size.

Preppy polo top; Softly flared jeans

Here’s the shades of cocoa trend which is as close to mocha mousse as you’ll find me. A lot of retailers are offering more depth of colour amongst their browns because as we’ve already discussed, beige is hard to pull off in the UK, even when the sun does shine. As you can see, I’m trying the suede jacket on again here to see if it works with more volume and a smarter outfit which I feel it does.

You saw me wearing these elegant linen trousers quite often last summer in black, the cut on them is just superb with the volume of fabric being held by neat pleats at the waist which avoids any bulk. This year they’ve been released in ivory along with this very rich coffee bean shade. They’re a little bit long on me so I would need to have them altered by about an inch, I’m wearing them with a low heel here. I’m very tempted to try them in a size down because they’re generous and I think that might fix the length issue. I absolutely love them though, they make me feel like one of the chic Spanish women that you see in Madrid – please John Lewis, bring these out in lots of bright colours next year.

Suede jacket; Racer vest top; Wide leg linen trousers; Sunglasses

I’ve added a simple racer vest, the cut has been better thought through than last year’s version, it now has a shaped armhole which looks much better. Made from organic cotton these are great pieces to have in your collection, they’re true to size and there are five colour options.

Suede jacket; Racer vest top; Wide leg linen trousers

I’m so pleased to see the return of the slogan t-shirt this year, it’s such an easy way of lifting a simple jeans outfit. You need to be careful with the slogan you choose though and this one’s lovely, not just in spirit but it’s also a great font, good graphic and the colour is both summery and exactly the right shade for wearing with jeans. It’s the nicest one I’ve seen anywhere and lots of people obviously agree because it’s going fast. In terms of size, it’s a standard t-shirt fit, I’m wearing a medium and would have liked to try a small but that’s just because I like to keep the top half of my outfits neat.

Dolce Vita tee; Bell flared jeans

I’m wearing it with the bell flared jeans again and this is another outfit that would have worked well with the lovely suede jacket. Right now though it’s hard to imagine ever wearing a coat again isn’t it? Long may it last.

Dolce Vita tee; Bell flared jeans; Sunglasses

As always there’s plenty to choose from at John Lewis and it feels as though by the time I look at them again next season, things will have moved on again. The drive to get customers back into stores by making sure that that’s where the fun and the new finds are going to be is an interesting approach when most retailers are working towards ‘mobile first’ strategy. Do I think it’ll work? Well I’ve heard that one of Peter Ruis’s inspirations is Selfridges and the work that’s going on reminds me very much of the regeneration strategy that we were part of there back in 1993. The vision was to reintroduce Gordon Selfridge’s original concept of ‘spend a day at Selfridges’ – we were tasked with putting the theatre back into shopping and it worked. What a department store needs is a great discovery around every corner along with products that can’t be found anywhere else and it sounds as though John Lewis is heading that way. My experience of department store turnarounds is that they take about five years so I’ll be keeping an eye on them – and I’ll be rooting for them. They’ll be interested to hear your thoughts because they always take note and in the past have shared your comments around the business so if there’s something you’d like to say, do take this opportunity.

And enjoy your bank holiday weekend – we have our first festival ahead which will be all the better for the weather, even though it’s an urban one. We originally planned it so that we could catch up with the eldest as well but we’ll be passing each other on the train as we head down to London and he makes his way up to Newcastle with his uni friends for rugby’s Magic Weekend at St James’s Park. Anyway I’ll tell you more about our festival and other things next Friday when it’ll be time for a catch-up. In fact I think it will be time for my annual birthday reflection post, it’s a bit early but my thoughts are ready so I should write them down while the reflections are fresh. I look forward to having a good chat with you, it’s been a while since we’ve had a conversation about midlife. See you next week!

Disclosure: ‘What’s going on at John Lewis?’ was commissioned by John Lewis but as always, I was free to choose my own words and also which outfits to borrow for the edit.

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