Is it cool to wear M&S clothes now?

"I'm the first person to be like, 'It's from M&S, you need to get on to it,'" Farron Clark, a 26-year-old brand strategist tells me.

According to Clark and others on social media, Marks & Spencer is becoming the hot place to shop for women under 35, while also keeping its core older audience happy too.

"For a long time M&S had this fusty reputation - it was less valued by younger people," says Chioma Nnadi, head of editorial content at British Vogue, who tells the BBC there is now a "fresh energy around the brand".

And accompanying that fresh energy is a new marketing strategy, which includes hosting its first-ever London Fashion Week show on Friday, featuring a collection of outfits inspired by the brand's archive.

Speaking ahead of the event at the Design Museum, the company's head of womenswear design, Lisa Illis, says they wanted to do this because of the "immediacy of seeing something and being able to own it and wear it, rather than waiting six months".

For many, M&S is more synonymous with pig-shaped sweets than cutting-edge fashion, but its runway of 43 womenswear and 10 menswear looks did a lot to persuade people that the latter is where its true talent lies.

Normally Fashion Week is about seeing what you'll be wearing six months from now, but this runway was full of colder weather fits, from opulent faux fur jackets and wrist cuffs, to satin jumpsuits and dresses in rich tones of navy, burgundy and brown.

The catwalk featured a diverse range of models in age, size and gender, demonstrating the brand's desire to cater to a wide market.

But there was certainly a concerted effort to attract the eye of younger shoppers with a fashion-forward approach to Christmas party staples like sequinned dresses, tasselled skirts and see-through lace tops.

The retailer has been focusing on "newer styles and relevant trends" to attract younger customers, says Illis.

But she says that this has been achieved without compromising on quality which is what keeps M&S's core audience on board.

"They have created a modern version of everything we know and love - cashmere staples, knitwear and the lingerie department," says Nnadi.

Clark agrees that M&S has been nailing "funnel neck [styles] and barrel jeans, which are filtering down from high fashion".

M&S has perhaps been fortunate to rebrand at a time when consumer habits are changing, as young shoppers consider buying capsule wardrobes - a smaller number of staple pieces that can be styled in a variety of ways.