Item 2021.42.1 - St Michael Y-Front Underwear

St Michael was a brand label used by the British department store Marks & Spencer (M&S) from 1928 until 2000. The origins of the company were in Yorkshire, England and it was formally founded in 1894 when Jewish immigrant Michael Marks (1859–1907) went into partnership with Tom Spencer (1851–1905) and they established a chain of stores called Penny Bazaars. After a period of instability, the company expanded in the 1920s through Michael Marks’s son Simon (1888–1964) and his joint managing director Israel Sieff (1889– 1972). Simon Marks visited the United States in 1926 to research retailing and it is highly likely that he also took note of the advanced state of the American ready-to-wear clothing industry. He developed the business to take advantage of the potential of ready-made clothes, despite their historic reputation for poor quality and inconsistent fit, and the continuing expansion of the business went together with their emphasis on the retailing of clothing. M&S introduced the St Michael label, which was registered as a trademark in 1928, to ensure that goods were produced to their specifications. Initially, the label was limited to shirts, pyjamas and knitted garments, with mackintoshes added from 1931. The company invested heavily in innovation and quality control for the clothing it sold, negotiating directly with suppliers and establishing an in-house textile laboratory in 1935. From the 1950s, all M&S clothing was sold under the St Michael brand, and menswear ranges including shirts, trousers, knitwear, ties and underwear became integral to their offer. M&S employed Italian designer Angelo Vitucci as a consultant to their menswear group from 1970, which resulted in their introduction of men’s suits in 1972 for the first time. They were manufactured by Activon (a subsidiary of the DAKS Simpson Group), and long-time supplier Dewhirst began to make suits for them shortly after. In the 1990s M&S overhauled their men’s suit design, including sourcing fabrics from Italian manufacturer Marzotto, a supplier of Giorgio Armani. In 1991 M&S considered adding ‘Marks & Spencer’ to the St Michael label, but it was not until 2000 that they dropped St Michael as a distinctive brand. In 2021, the company reintroduced the St Michael logo on men’s rugby shirts and sweatshirts.
Sources: M&S Company Archive; Rachel Worth, Fashion for the People: A History of Clothing at Marks & Spencer (New York: Berg, 2007); The Guardian; The Independent.