Now you can shop at Sainsbury and be fashion forward

London

J SAINSBURY, the supermarket that has been selling Britons their bread and baked beans for more than a century, is looking beyond the grocery aisles for a competitive edge in a tough market - and seeking inspiration from the catwalks of Los Angeles and Milan.

Yes, it is entering the clothing fray. The retailer has created a team of 30 fashion-spotters who scour the world's runways to gain inspiration for its Tu clothing range. By identifying trends like denim frill tunics, which it sells for £20 (S$36), and two-tone skinny jeans (£18), the grocery chain is adding to mounting pressure on the UK's more established apparel sellers, including Marks & Spencer Group and Next.

Sainsbury's commercial director James Brown said: "We've decided we needed to compete more with the High Street, both in terms of the pace at which clothing was changing through the season, as well as on our quality and the…