M&S to rival Habitat

Mark & Spencer today launched a bold initiative to "sex up" its image for a new generation of shoppers.

The new "Lifestore" is unlike anything that St Michael, the now-defunct M&S figurehead, would ever have dreamed up.

The £14 million store in Gateshead is M&S's attempt to seize a bigger share of Britain's £20 billion market for homewares as shoppers devote ever more time and money to their home lifestyles.

The company's current range brings in sales of £400 million a year.

The centrepiece of the Lifestore is an extraordinary two-storey "home" designed by minimalist architect John Pawson. The store contains nine different worlds - with names such as "relax", "celebrate" and "alfresco". The 12,000-strong range of products is not arranged on anything as conventional as shelves but are as scattered as they would appear in a real home.

The vision is the work of former Selfridges boss, the flamboyant Italian Vittorio Radice, who cut his design teeth at Habitat, where he was buying director and managing director from 1990 to 1996.

We asked design expert Stephen Bayley to cast his eye over the revolutionary M&S ranges and judge how they compare with the competition from Mr Radice's alma mater, still the store that M&S will have to beat to pull in the aspiring middle classes.

However, for Mr Bayley, at least, M&S has still got a lot to learn. He said: "While one so admires the energy that has gone into the Lifestore, I wonder if it would have been better for the customer if they had restricted the choice a little - there is a lack of consistency. It is like one of those restaurants with impossibly long menus. You just can't help feeling that not everything on it can be good. The whole thing reminds me of an M&S ready meal - superficially impressive but fundamentally unsatisfying."