'I went shopping at the new George at Asda concept store in Leeds - there is some remarkable value'

Davies moved on (to found M&S’s Per Una label), but the George name remains and is at present the UK’s third-largest fashion retailer by sales volume.

Now it gets to live its own independent life with the opening tomorrow of the first standalone George concept store in Leeds, at Crown Point Retail Park.

It is fitting that Asda has chosen its home city of Leeds for the trial. Last week marked the 60th anniversary of the opening of its first supermarket on May 3, 1965, although its roots date back to the 1920s when W R Asquith had a butcher’s shop in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, which expanded to seven shops. Sons Peter and Fred were part of a coalition of farmers and suppliers who formed Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Ltd in 1949.

If successful in Leeds, George stores will replace Asda Living branches across the UK, stocking clothing and homeware, toys and baby items (this Leeds one also has a Kitchen concept cafe).

Here, clothes and accessories - and homewares - will not be thrown into the trolley alongside milk, washing detergent and ready meals, but will be a shopping destination in themselves.

In fashion, there is the spring/summer 2025 womenswear collection, fronted by model Yasmin Le Bon, alongside celebrity collaborations with influencers and celebrities including Erica Davies, Billie Faiers and the At Home with Stacey Solomon range.

Asda says there will be “faster, easier shopping, thanks to streamlined checkouts, new self-serve options, and hassle-free Click & Collect”.

Liz Evans, MD of George, as well as Non-food and Retail chief commercial officer (she joined in 2022 after heading Fatface), says the move “is all about making shopping easier and more inspiring with the George brand at its heart”, adding that the focus is on “value, quality, and standout hero categories”.

George has been making a serious effort to raise its style game by hitting trends and supporting UK fashion with cool collabs. Last autumn it teamed up with Roksanda for London Fashion Week on a collection that raised funds for the British Fashion Council Foundation.

George has also launched Style Stories, collections curated and often designed in collaboration with fashion influencers or stylists. Witness a second range from fashion journalist Erica Davies, who has 260K-plus Instagram followers. Key pieces have included a £38 leopard bomber (reminds of Ganni), leopard trousers, slogan sweaters in contrast brights, plus slouchy denim trousers.

Meanwhile, Erica Kids launched last month, a unisex children’s range offering oversized shirts, mix-and-match co-ords and LA inspired abstract prints for ages five to 16.

Also for SS25 is a debut fashion edit from Kat Farmer, another of the Style Stories series, with pieces created using the influencer’s signature boho rock-chick flair, with a Wild West vive and key pieces including delicate white blouses, striking cheetah-print trousers, floaty dresses and denim staples. She has 374K followers.

And in January, actress and Strictly star Maisie Smith - who has more than two million TikTok followers, fronted the sporty G21 collection. George has even stepped into the wedding arena, recently launching a bridesmaid collection to provide “an affordable alternative”.

So it’s all going on, but how does this influencing filter down to the George shopping experience within Asda stores? I am an Asda shopper, especially for last-minute holiday pieces, but I have to admit that I find the George section of my local Asda daunting, a blur of rails of brightly coloured clothing grouped in a way that seems to make little sense, with specific pieces hard to find.

Yes, there are aisles for jeans, and for basic tops, but these butt up awkwardly with sales rails, holiday wear and random collections of dresses, ordered neither by style nor colour nor theme, so it’s hard to visualise an outfit.

On a recent visit, I saw a couple of boards highlighting the Style Stories collections, but, had I not known about them already, I would have no idea why they were there, as there was no explanation, nor any mention of the influencers’ names and signature styles.

There were almost no staff on-hand, very few mirrors and no changing rooms (many supermarkets got rid of these during the pandemic, with no sign of a return). If you carry an item over to a mirror, it’s hard to know where to put it back, which cannot help the seemingly random placement of clothes in the section.

That said, there were some great pieces – I love the current lace and embroidered dresses and separates. Some fabrics, especially the crinkled fabrics and some viscose and nylon blends, are not to my taste, but the prices do represent remarkable value.

As for quality, all I can say is that I have worn the same pair of George exercise leggings every week for almost 20 years, and they still look new.

But what about the fast fashion debate, especially concerns about who is making our cheaper clothing? Asda’s clothes are made in global locations including Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, India, Morocco, Cambodia, Vietnam, Turkey and Italy. It publishes a list of its manufacturing suppliers, giving details of the number of workers and male/female ratios, on direct.asda.com.

George at Asda says: “We always aim to do the right thing. To meet our commitment, we employ a team of ethics specialists, both at our headquarters in the UK and on the ground in the countries where our clothes are produced.”

Online platform Wethrift recently named George as the "most affordable" supermarket brand. With the cost of living on everyone’s mind, it’s no surprise that consumers turn to supermarket fashion. Will standalone George be what budget fashion shoppers really want? Time will tell.

The new George concept store in Leeds at Crown Point Retail Par will open at 9am on Saturday, May 10.