John Lewis raises fashion profile with deluge of brand additions, including Mulberry exclusives

Just a week after news of John Lewis’s even deeper dive into beauty, it’s upping its game in another of its key categories — fashion. As its turnaround continues, it’s adding 100 new brands to its 36 physical stores as the battle between it and other big-hitters Next and M&S intensifies.

The labels will include both women’s and menswear from premium home-grown and international names, as well as up-and-coming brands that are generating heat.

New additions will include an exclusive Mulberry collection, plus the arrival of Akyn, By Malene Birger, Iro, Snowpeak and Nigel Cabourn. The Mulberry deal should be good news for that label too, which is seeking to boost its own turnaround efforts.

At present, John Lewis stocks around 650 different labels.

The department stores/webstore operator has been working on a turnaround under current chair Jason Tarry after a difficult period under its previous chair Sharon White that saw many of its senior execs with direct retail experience being ousted and the company moving into non-retail areas like build-to-rent homes. But the arrival (in January 2024) of Peter Ruis to run the department stores operation saw the former Jigsaw CEO — who’d also previously had buying or brand roles at John Lewis itself, as well as M&S, Ted Baker, and Levi Strauss — has seen it sharpening its focus.

He’s overseeing investment in the firm’s stores with an £800 million spend. Only last week the retailer said it was starting the national rollout of “immersive, multi-sensory” Beauty Halls, backed by a multi-million-pound investment “designed to transform its stores into beauty discovery destinations”.

John Lewis said the initiative follows 40% sales growth in its beauty category over the last five years.

Ruis told the Telegraph that his aim is to give customers “even more reasons to shop in our brilliant stores” and the latest fashion move comes as rivals Next and M&S increase their fashion market shares as they sell more and more labels in addition to the own brands that were their mainstay for much of their history.

GlobalData told the newspaper that Next has a rising UK clothing and footwear market share of over 5% and M&S’s is also rising while approaching 5%. John Lewis’s share has been static for some time at 1.5% but Ruis believes the retailer could more than double its fashion revenue from £1.2 billion a year to £2.5 billion.

The latest news of the new labels being added follows earlier fashion link-ups with brands such as AWAKE Mode and SS Daley as we’ll as this autumn’s Rejina Pyo collab. 

But the drive won’t only rely on third-party labels with the company boosting its own brand via new collections. And it won’t be a dash for growth at all costs with the focus being securely on premium and careful curation to give shoppers a reason to go to its stores.