Marks & Spencer, read closely: the nation’s chinos are fine, the shop around them less so
M&S still sells the trousers, school shirts and bras that half the country is wearing. The clothes mostly hold up; the website has turned into a department store of other people’s brands.
Published October 2026·Last reviewed October 2026
The short answer
For basics, yes. M&S remains the most sensible place in Britain to buy chinos, school uniform, underwear and a first cashmere jumper, and the returns policy is long and free to a shop or by post.1 Go in with a list, though. The website now sells dozens of other brands beside its own, the customer service reviews are poor, and the own-label knitwear draws more complaints about thinning quality than a brand with this reputation should tolerate.
Points in favour
The case for M&S is the case for the thing that is simply there. The Regular Fit Stretch Chinos come in five fits and five inside-leg lengths, in waists running from thirty to fifty inches,2 which is a more serious attempt at fitting real men than most menswear brands charging twice as much bother to make. Several hundred reviewers rate them well, and the comments are mostly variations on the same dull sentence: they fit, they wash, I bought another pair. It is not a romantic sentence. It is the one most people want from a pair of trousers. M&S produces it more reliably than anyone else on the high street.
It is not a romantic sentence. It is the one most people want from a pair of trousers.
The second argument is the shops. Hardly any clothing brand in this country still has a building near you, and M&S does, which means free click and collect, returns handed over a counter rather than queued for at a parcel locker, and a changing room for the things that really need one.13 Returns to a fashion store are processed within a day, according to the brand’s own table, against ten for anything sent by post.1 For school uniform in late August, or a bra that may or may not fit, that difference is the whole point. The returns window is also generous, and at the time of reading it had been stretched to mid-January for Christmas purchases.1
The objections
The M&S that customers describe on Trustpilot is not the M&S of the chinos. The profile scores poorly, and the recurring complaints are about the business rather than the clothes: deliveries that miss the chosen day, refunds that stall, and a customer service line that one reviewer called virtually impossible to reach.4 The profile is unclaimed and M&S does not invite reviews to it, so it skews towards the aggrieved. Even so, the pattern is consistent enough to plan around. Use the shop where you can, keep the order confirmation, and do not choose M&S for anything that has to arrive on a particular day.
The second problem is quality drift in the place it matters most. The Autograph Pure Cashmere Crew Neck Jumper is rated well on average, but only around two thirds of reviewers would recommend it,5 and the dissent is specific: thinner than it used to be, scratchier, a change in where it is made. Similar remarks surface under the chinos, where one reviewer found a new pair thinner than last year’s. M&S built its name on the idea that this year’s version would be as good as last year’s. On the evidence of its own reviews, that promise is now honoured on some lines rather than all of them, and the shopper has to work out which.
Third, the shop has become crowded. The women’s dresses page lists thousands of dresses, and a large share come from brands M&S does not make: Nobody’s Child, Monsoon, River Island, and the homepage at the time of reading was also selling Seasalt, White Stuff and FatFace knitwear.3 There is nothing wrong with a department store, and the brand filter works. But a customer who came for M&S clothes can now spend ten minutes scrolling past other people’s, and a filter labelled simply M&S sits awkwardly beside separate entries for Per Una and Autograph, which are also M&S.
Reading the range
Men’s chinos and trousers Our choice The Regular Fit Stretch Chinos are the best argument M&S has. Mostly cotton with a little elastane, a choice of regular, loose, slim, skinny and barrel cuts, and inside-leg lengths from short to properly long.2 The reviews are strong and unusually consistent, with the honest caveats appearing where you would expect: one reviewer received a pair with legs of visibly different lengths, another thought the cloth thinner than before, and a third wished more colours came with the half-elasticated waist. Those are the complaints of people who have bought these several times. That is the point of them, and the price makes buying two colours an easy decision.
School uniform Our choice The uniform pages describe adjustable waistbands, hems deep enough to be let down, polos sold as stain-resistant and shirts sold as easy-iron, and shoes promised to resist scuffs.6 The multipacks of Easy Iron School Shirts and Stain Resist School Polo Shirts carry large numbers of good reviews, and the pure cotton school jumpers are rated well by a crowd big enough to trust. Some lines are sold online only, which defeats the point of a shop in August. The jumpers do bobble, as parents note, but so do all school jumpers; these at least come in packs of two.
Bras, especially the Jasmine lace balcony Also considered M&S still sells more bras than most people realise, across its own label, Body by M&S and a list of bought-in lingerie brands. The Jasmine Lace Wired Balcony Bra is a fair example of the own label at its plainest: inexpensive, rated well by a few hundred reviewers, and true to size by most accounts.6 The critical reviews are practical rather than angry: underwires that dig after sizing up, straps on the narrow side, a cup that does not suit a wide back with a small bust. Buy one, wash it, and only then buy three.
Autograph cashmere Also considered The Autograph Pure Cashmere Crew Neck Jumper is the sort of thing M&S was once trusted to get right without anyone checking. It is all cashmere, regular fit, and the care label permits a forty-degree wash, which is either brave or optimistic.5 Most reviewers are happy. The unhappy minority are long-standing customers, which is the worrying part, and their complaints are about thickness and handle rather than fit. Wait for the frequent knitwear promotions, feel one in a shop if you can, and compare it with the one already in your drawer.
Dresses and the bought-in brands Not for us The dresses department is now a marketplace with M&S tills. Own-label jersey dresses sit between pages of Monsoon, Nobody’s Child and River Island, some badged as new with two or three reviews to go on.3 None of it is bad, and the free returns make experimenting cheap. But if you want a Monsoon dress, Monsoon sells it too, often with more sizes in stock, and the M&S own-label dresses are not distinctive enough to justify wading through the rest. Use the brand filter or go elsewhere.
Dealing with them
Standard delivery is charged unless the basket clears a threshold, and next-day and nominated-day delivery cost a little more; collection from a store is free and the shop holds the parcel for five days after the arranged date.3 Returns are the better story. The standard window is longer than the legal minimum, sale items have a shorter two-stage window, and returns are free whether they go back to a store or by Evri or Royal Mail.1 There is a small catch: postal returns are generally refused on orders under a modest minimum value, which will catch anyone sending back a single pair of socks. Furniture, food, flowers and personalised items are not returnable at all. Customer service is the weak point, judging by Trustpilot, and the honest advice is to use a store for anything that might need a conversation.4 Refunds go back to the original card, a few working days after the return is processed.
The Journal's verdict
M&S is two shops sharing a name. One is the old one: trousers in five lengths, school shirts in packs of three, a bra that costs less than lunch, all backed by free returns and a branch in most towns. The other is a busy website selling other people’s dresses, with service reviews that would embarrass a much smaller business and cashmere that some regulars think has slipped. Buy the basics from M&S, return them in a shop if they are wrong, and look elsewhere for anything you would describe as a treat.
Rivals worth a glance
John Lewis own-brand clothing covers the same basics with better service reviews, though with far fewer shops to return things to.
Uniqlo is the obvious rival for chinos and knitwear, usually cheaper and more uniform from year to year, with fewer fits to choose from.
Seasalt makes the knitwear that M&S now sells beside its own, and is worth buying from directly for the full range.
Sources and notes
- M&S returns and refunds page, read October 2026: 28 days as standard; online sale items 14 days to notify and a further 14 to send; free returns to Fashion, Home & Beauty stores or by Evri and Royal Mail; postal returns generally unavailable under £10; store returns processed within one day, postal within ten; Christmas purchases from 22 October 2026 returnable until 17 January 2027.↩
- Regular Fit Stretch Chinos product page, read October 2026: 98% cotton, 2% elastane; waists 30 to 50; inside legs 27 to 35 inches; regular, loose, slim, skinny and barrel fits; rated 4.6 from 807 reviews, 75% recommending.↩
- M&S delivery FAQ and homepage, read October 2026: standard £3.99, free over £75 (furniture excluded); next day and nominated day £5.99; store collection free, held five days. Homepage and dresses listing showed Seasalt, White Stuff, FatFace, Monsoon and Nobody’s Child among bought-in brands.↩
- Trustpilot, uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.marksandspencer.com, read October 2026: TrustScore 1.8 from about 15,300 reviews; profile unclaimed and not invited by M&S; frequent complaints about delivery days, refunds and reaching customer service.↩
- Autograph Pure Cashmere Crew Neck Jumper product page, read October 2026: 100% cashmere, regular fit, 40-degree wash; rated 4.4 from 188 reviews, 66% recommending.↩
- School uniform and Jasmine Lace Wired Balcony Bra pages, read October 2026: uniform features quoted from the category page; the bra is 89% polyamide, 11% elastane, rated 4.5 from 612 reviews, 75% recommending.↩
Filed under the Wardrobe desk