An icon was born. The first Marks & Spencer bra was here.

This era wasn’t easy for anybody, including retailers. But companies who adapted survived. We reinvented ourselves and responded to people’s needs. We started to sell more of life’s essentials, including underwear. Since then the bra has become our most iconic product, with one in three women now wearing one bought from M&S. But there was a lot more going on during this period that shaped the way we operate today.

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Underwear first appeared in Marks & Spencer in the 1920s. It has since become our most iconic product. A tomboyish figure was the ideal in the 1920s, so our earliest bras were designed to flatten rather than support the bust. There was a demand throughout the 1930s for affordable household goods, as more new houses were built. This tea set is one of many within the archive and was donated by Doreen Newlyn. It features a distinctively art deco design. In the 1920s, sheet music was one of our most popular product lines, but in the 1930s people had gramophones at home, so we started selling records. We had our own brand record line, featuring the "Marspen Band", our in-house musicians. This manicure set was donated by former sales assistant, Miss M. Simpson. It cost five shillings — the highest price in store at the time. This was a third of her weekly wages, so she was allowed to buy it in six pence instalments. In the 1930s M&S sold many electrical household goods, including heaters, irons and lightbulbs, which were described as lamps. These were very popular and were often the focus of artistic window displays.

1920-1940 In Depth

In the decades between the wars, Britain moved into the Great Depression. There were shortages of goods, unemployment was at nearly 3 million and many companies closed. However, it was the period that sharpened the business and helped us focus and strengthen our strong foundations.

M&S was now facing competition from affordable variety stores. Adapting to keep ahead of the game we changed our pricing system, now selling goods up to 5 shillings. We also reduced the dazzling array of items offered, placing emphasis on two departments: food, which M&S had always sold to some extent, and clothing, which was new for us.

We made ourselves unique by offering clothing that was well made but affordable. M&S was the first retailer to have a research laboratory to pre-test the quality of our goods and develop innovative new fabrics. Higher quality at lower prices proved very successful.

As more houses were built, the demand for affordable household goods grew. So we sold items like tea sets, and domestic chores were jazzed up with our bright, art deco jumpsuits.

This period really saw our products start to blend in with the changing lifestyles of our customers.

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