High Street Fashion Store Topshop

The British Chain-Store Taking The Fashion World By Storm

Aug 24, 2009

With its designer collaborations and own Unique collection, which shows at London Fashion Week, Topshop is far more than just a clothes store.

British high-street store Topshop sells high fashion women's clothing at affordable prices. The shop was established in 1964 and can now be found in 20 countries throughout the world. The most recent high profile opening being the brands first American store, which opened in New York in April 2009.

The flagship Oxford Circus store in London is the world's biggest fashion store, the building also houses Topman, the menswear counterpart to the brand, which was established in the late 1970s and Miss Selfridge, another womenswear store. Along with Topshop, these brands are among those that make up the Arcadia group, which is owned by British billionaire Sir Philip Green.

Topshop Unique

As well as having a reputation for producing the most fashion forward clothes on the high street, Topshop is in the privileged position of being one of the only high street stores to have its own fashion label. This means that as well as having a design team focusing on the mainline range that fills the stores, there is a team of Topshop designers, led by Jacqui Markham and Karen Bonser, that create the Topshop Unique collection, which is shown twice a year at London Fashion Week.

Although it has been designed as a collection and sold in-store since 2001, Topshop Unique was only debuted on the catwalk at London Fashion Week for S/S 2006. Topshop Unique has had commerical and critical success and holds its own against established fashion houses such as Vivienne Westwood and Luella.

Topshop New Gen Award

Since 2001, Topshop have been sponsoring the British Fashion Council's New Generation Award, which is credited with ensuring that fresh new design talent comes through every season. The scheme gives promising new designers funding towards their show costs, so they can show at London Fashion Week. It provides them with the launchpad they need to start their commercial career.

Designer Collaborations

As well as its Unique label, Topshop collaborates with many up-and-coming and established designers, a lot of them being the aforementioned New Gen designers, to create capsule collections to sell in-store. The most famous one being with British supermodel Kate Moss, who designed her first collection in May 2007 and has an on-going contract with the brand. Other famous names that have designed successful collections for Topshop include:

Topshop's desire to remain at the forefront of the fashion industry and its support for new designers means that its position as the most fashion forward store on the high street is holding strong. Topshop plays an important role in ensuring that new design talent are getting the help they need to have a successful career in fashion design. This in turn means that high street shoppers are able to buy innovative and exciting clothes without having to pay extortionate prices, it is a scenario that benefits everyone.

The copyright of the article High Street Fashion Store Topshop in Women’s Fashion is owned by Jennifer McNulty. Permission to republish High Street Fashion Store Topshop in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.