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When the invitation landed in inboxes, fashion insiders’ Whatsapp group chats all but combusted.
It was the hottest May 1 on record, but the only thing anyone could talk about that day was confirmation of a badly kept industry secret: Topshop is coming back to the high street. Yes, really. “This is your invite to the first IRL event by Topshop in five years!” read the silver letter, the words “Topshop in the house” emblazoned across it. It also gave away the fact this return will be gradual.
In its 2000s heyday, thanks to the creative chops of Jane Shepherdson and Kate Phelan, millions made the pilgrimage to Oxford Street’s “big Topshop”, which was a veritable cathedral for cool kids. Kate Moss might have been posing as a mannequin, in a red evening frock, launching one of her collaborations. Or Beyoncé’s Ivy Park might have taken over the store, a 100,000 sq ft mini city which attracted 400,000 customers each week before lockdown. In its place today you will find flat-packed furniture and fridge freezers full of meatballs, now Ikea has opened its doors there.
Far smaller in scale will be Topshop’s “Ibiza-inspired” private comeback bash on May 8, in the Shoreditch basement of the Defected Records shop, “with a nod to the legendary basement parties of its flagship Oxford Street store”. Then on May 10, for one day only, the public are invited to visit the underground pop-up from 10am to 6pm, and gain access to the new Talamanca summer collection and limited-edition £35 Topshop x Defected T-shirts.
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It is a curtain raiser for the relaunch of topshop.com “around August time,” explains Moses Rashid, Topshop’s marketing director since February. “Everybody had this emotional connection to Topshop, so this is like a rallying of the troops,” he says. “It’s a bit of a war cry.”
The intention is to “bring the swagger it once had back”. He adds: “We’re going to be slightly unfiltered, we’re going to have a bit of fun, we’re probably going to make a few mistakes.” He suggests collaborations with “amazing talent from the fashion world, art, and so forth” will appear throughout the summer.
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As for when we will see Topshop shopfronts back on the high street permanently, he is coy. “Our social media posts say we’ll be there in real life,” he says. “It’s certainly part of our strategy and our thinking.”
We can expect printed dresses, beachy halter necks and the odd lace vest at this “bohemian” teaser, but it will “also have some of the old favourites, including the Jamie and Joni jeans,” Rashid says. Free tickets for one-hour browsing slots have sold out, but walk-in slots are available on the day — join the queue early.
Clues that Topshop’s new era will be trend-led came with the brand’s most recent collection on Asos: called Ranch Water, it’s a Western-inspired fandango featuring dusty pink suede jackets, butter yellow suits and embellished spaghetti strap tops. That drop launched in April, with a private event at the fairly naff NYX Hotel in Holborn without any famous faces, but with a promise from managing director Michelle Wilson. She said: “This is just the start. We’ll be scaling things up over the summer as we build towards our AW25 relaunch.”
Where did it go?
The beloved Topshop brand disappeared from high streets after Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group clattered into administration in November 2020. The 70 standalone stores were boarded up. Three months later Asos acquired it — along with Topman and Miss Selfridge — for £265 million, keeping the company alive, albeit in rather uninspiring fashion, online.
It wasn’t until September last year, when Asos sold a 75 per cent stake in Topshop and Topman to Heartland — owned by Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen — for £135 million that things perked up, and mutterings of a revival began.
Devotees rejoice
“We’ve all missed the staple it was,” says stylist Georgia Medley. “It was the last-minute easiest go-to for any occasion. I hope they’re bringing Topshop Boutique back, I miss her, and Topshop shoes were always fab too.”
Zak Maoui, style director at Gentleman’s Journal, worked at Topshop between 2011 and 2013. He recalls “the incredible energy that shops don’t have anymore. Topshop and Topman represented a power on the high street and a wow factor of stuff that was really f***ing cool. We had that Oxford Street mecca of fashion. Everyone says the high street is dead, and that coincided with the loss of Topshop.” It is also an important British renaissance. “Zara is Spanish, H&M is Swedish — we don’t have a British high street brand that is globally recognised like that,” Maoui adds.
Stylist Clementine Brown agrees. “Late millennials are rejoicing in the nostalgia of this news — our entire teen social lives revolved around going to a Topshop store. The flagship was the ultimate day out: rebellious types would go and get a piercing, the fashion obsessives would scour all the concession rails and, if you really knew what you were doing, you’d invest in some Topshop Boutique. Some might loiter at the entrance in the hope of being scouted. Now Gen Z can hopefully live the ultimate 2000s shopping experience.”
But it will only work if the clothes are as good as they were before, says Itunu Oke, GQ magazine’s style projects editor. “I just feel like do we really need it? If it is not coming back in the same capacity as it was before, on Oxford Street, then is it really Topshop?” Time will tell if it can live up to the hype. “I am excited to see what they’re bringing,” Oke says. “Then we can make a true judgment.”
