England Football Swaps Marks & Spencer for Armani

It was reported yesterday that for the next three years the England soccer team will be dressed by Marks and Spencer instead of Giorgio Armani. Armani's three year contract with the team expired this year. In the UK, the spin was that Armani had been fired. But I am wondering if the appeal of dressing the team has subsided a bit for foreign designers like Armani now that David Beckham isn't playing for England. When the line debuted, Armani said it had been done in consultation with Beckham, an international style icon. Becks and his equally fashion-conscious wife Posh are moving to Los Angeles any day now. (I previously posted a warning to LA's fashion designers.)
Timothy Everest, one of the new generation of groovy British tailors, has designed a line for Marks and Spencer for the last seven years and that's what the team will be wearing. The cost of the entire outfits has dropped from 2,000 uk pounds (about $4,000) to 407 pounds (or about $814). Which isn't to say the quality will be so vastly different. One of the reasons Everest likes working for M&S is that they buy quality fabrics in such vast quantites that they can negotiate steep discounts and he can add on orders for his own label as well.