In a test of made-to-measure shirts, Which?, the consumer watchdog, found that Marks & Spencer’s £30 service was twice as good as a shirt from 40 Savile Row, a retailer based on London’s most famous street for tailoring. This shirt costs £165.50.

The test examined three over-the-internet shirt makers, but found the fit and comfort of the M&S shirt easily beat the 40 Savile Row shirt, giving the M&S shirt 16 points out of 20, compared to a mere 7 out of 20 for the upmarket version from Savile Row. The shirt from Tailor Store, an online specialist, garnered 14 points out of 20 and costs just fractionally more than M&S’s at £30.90.

M&S, which launched its made-to-measure service a year ago, has found it very popular with customers. They just need to tap in their collar size, age, height and weight into an online form and the computer “uses BivolinoServices biometric technology to work out the correct size and fit”.

A spokesman for the retailer, which has been suffering from faltering sales in recent months, said: “We’re thrilled but not altogether surprised. The made-to-measure service has been very popular.”

On Tuesday 22 May, Stuart Rose, Marks & Spencer’s chief executive announced the yearly results for 2006/07 : sales up 10%, profit up 30%. Not too bad actually! But what is most amazing is to hear the same day that Martha Lane Fox, who made her name in the dotcom boom as a co-founder of Lastminute.com in 1998, is joining Marks and Spencer as a non-executive director per first of June. ‘Ms Lane Fox would be a useful sounding board for the chain as it looked to expand its online business’ said Stuart Rose. M&S direct sales £160m: 60% growth online; website successfully re-launched.
www.marks-and-spencer.com