Topshop

Topshop

Type	Subsidiary of Arcadia Group
Genre	Retail
Founded	1964 by Jessie Pearman (formed within a department store)
Headquarters	London, England, UK, under Arcadia Group LTD
Area served	United Kingdom  Ireland  Malaysia  Singapore  Australia  Sweden  Poland  United States  Russia  Spain
Industry	Fashion Clothing Textiles
Products	Women's retail fashion
Website	Official Website

Topshop is a British chain of clothing stores that operates in more than 20 countries. It is part of the Arcadia Group, which also owns a number of other well-known retail outlets including Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and Wallis.

Its primary sales come from a range of products including clothing and fashion accessories, and is mainly known for its women's clothing, with Topman having been created in the late 1970s to cater for male customers. The business has also expanded into the online fashion retail arena.

Products

Topshop logo on storefront, 2009.

In the 1990s, Topshop was considered to be deeply unfashionable; however, the chain has reinvented itself as a fashionable brand in recent years.^[1] This reinvention has included the introduction of a 'Unique' line of clothes, a more upmarket selection of fashion, and a regular show at London Fashion Week, the only high street brand to do so.

The chain has also offered a number of collections designed by celebrities including supermodel Kate Moss and the artist Stella Vine.^[2]

Topshop's current trends are 'Horror Girl', Highland Fling', 'Glory Days', 'Memphis', 'Sport Nouveau', and 'Witchcraft', alongside luxury garments and designer affiliations under 'The Boutique' and a collection by supermodel Kate Moss.

Celebrity collections

In May 2007, the British supermodel Kate Moss, designed her first collection for Topshop.^[3] The appointment of Moss was announced just before the departure of CEO Jane Shepherdson.

In July 2007, British artist Stella Vine designed a limited edition fashion range exclusively for Topshop inspired by her colourful artworks. These included T-shirts,^[4] vest tops, and T-shirt dresses,^[5] with the labels designed in pink glitter.^[6] The Guardian commented that "the fact that the range of T-shirts she has recently designed for Top Shop - emblazoned with slogans like Breaking Up With Her Boyfriend - are flying out, speaks volumes for her public support."^[7]

Flagship Stores

Oxford Street

The storefront of Topshop in Oxford Street, London, 2009.

Topshop Oxford Street is the world's largest fashion store and is also the home of the brand's flagship store.^[8][9] The store's features include a nail bar, a one hour tailoring service, a hair salon by famed catwalk hairdresser Daniel Hersheson, and a one hour delivery service whereby customers can place an order to the store and their products will be delivered by Vespa scooter to them within one hour, providing that they live in the delivery zone. Topshop also houses an EAT café/sandwich bar.^[10] Topshop Oxford Circus is roughly 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²) and covers five floors.^[11] The shop attracts up to 30,000 customers each day.^[12] Customers can also access fellow Arcadia Group member Miss Selfridge, which is situated next door, through the sweet shop.

New York

Topshop's first flagship store outside of the United Kingdom is located on Broadway in New York.^[13] The new store offers services similar to the London outlet.^[14] The New York store is the brand's second largest store after the company's flagship store in London: the New York store is roughly 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²).^[15][16] Sir Philip Green thinks the New York flagship will be a hit, despite the current economic issues, “People haven’t stopped shopping. The young fashion market has still remained pretty resilient during these difficult times.” ^[17]

Liverpool

In the summer of 2009, Topshop opened its first Manhattan-style concept store in the United Kingdom, in Liverpool, England. Located in Liverpool One, the new store provides 60,000sq ft of retail space making it the second largest store in the country.^[18] It is the company's north of England flagship store and also contains an Office shoes outlet, a Voodoo hair salon and Scin beauty salon.^[19]

Foreign Operations

Several branches of Topshop can be found outside the United Kingdom, most notably in the Republic of Ireland, Gibraltar, Japan, Malaysia at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. The chain also includes stores in Poland, Cyprus, Iceland, Sweden, Serbia, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Israel, Russia, Austria, Thailand, Turkey, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Its male-clothing counterpart, Topman, is a standalone business.

After the recent success of the Kate Moss clothing range, Topshop has decided to introduce the range to the United States market. Topshop has struck a deal with U.S. department store Barneys New York to sell through its 19 stores.^[20]

Topshop and Topman also have a presence in 'Opening Ceremony' in their New York store.

Criticism

This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations of additional sources. (April 2008)

Mr. Green went on to state: "You [The Sunday Times] are telling me that factories are happy to breach our code of conduct. I’ve got to look into it." This suggests that if the findings are conclusive, the company will be looking to improve conditions.

Topshop has also been criticized by student campaigning network People & Planet for allegedly using cotton picked in Uzbekistan by slaves, and for refusing to join the Ethical Trading Initiative.^[21]

See also

• Oxford Street
• Kate Moss
• Stella Vine

References

External links

• Official website
• Topshop - Fashion Fast Forward Malaysia
• Stella Vine at Topshop review