Topshop — When brand becomes culture

Bringing the runway to customers in record time. Collaborations that sell out in seconds. Collections that compete with designer brands. Whatever the high-street retail trends of today, Topshop probably did them first — and arguably better.

We all know how the story ended — the Arcadia Group collapsed and Topshop’s iconic Oxford Street store closed its doors in 2021, with ASOS continuing its presence online. So what went wrong? Yes, they were up against market trends that decimated many once-great retailers, as new generations of shoppers moved online and super-fast, super-cheap competitors emerged. But arguably what killed Topshop wasn’t the retail landscape, but losing sight of the core brand purpose that made it not just fashion forward, but a style visionary.

The news that ASOS has sold its majority stake to Danish conglomerate Bestseller for £135m is another chance for the brand to recapture its glory days. And if the way Topshop is constantly and nostalgically remembered in the press is anything to go by, there’s still a lot of legacy love for it. But if the next iteration of Topshop is to succeed, it needs to remember the magic that can happen when vision is at the heart of your business.

Jane Shepherdson, Topshop’s Brand Director from 1998 – 2007, was a strong leader whose vision was shared by the talented team she built around her. Her clarity of vision meant that everyone was aligned behind a core purpose: to be a fashion authority, and give everyone access to things that were usually preserved for the few. Maintaining this vision as a fashion authority allowed Topshop to do things that no other high street brand could, like sponsor emerging designers with the British Fashion Council and show its own collection at London Fashion Week.

Topshop wasn’t afraid to stand out and take risks in service of long-term brand building — rather than just focusing on short-term profit — because they respected both the vision and core customer: stylish young women who knew good design. This applied right down to the small details, fabrics and tailoring, which cost Topshop more to produce, but were worth it to stay true to the brand’s DNA.

Topshop was experientially ahead of its time, introducing personal shopping on the high street, biking over products to offices on the same day, and offering innovative in-store experiences like Mirror Mirror, an interactive mirror that could talk to you, with top fashion creatives such as Edward Enninful and Katie Grand offering styling advice from behind the scenes. The brand also pioneered collaborations with tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat at London Fashion Week. A partnership with Google, ​“The Future of the Fashion Show”, used technology to give people greater access to the show — microcameras were attached to models on the runway, and personal hangouts and Google apps let customers be the buyer, in a perfect realisation of the brand vision to democratise fashion.

Internally, the team lived and breathed Topshop’s culture: buyers travelled the world to gather inspiration for collections, and other team members scoped music festivals to find tracks for in-store playlists. And externally, the brand supported emerging cultural icons, championed originality and told new stories. It worked with the Helmut Newton Foundation to share his work with a whole new audience, gave a platform to young designers like Christopher Kane, JW Anderson and Simone Rocha, and discovered new models, photographers, and stylists along the way.

Whether Topshop manages to recapture this spirit remains to be seen. Perhaps you can’t get the stars to align twice. But you can certainly create the conditions for magic to happen when you invest in brand by channelling visionary thinking, rallying a passionate collective, and creating cultural resonance.