How Topshop Changed Fashion

By Adam Smith / London

With its dark furniture, high-tech gadgets and model jet plane, Philip Green's London office feels like the work space of an investment banker or hedge-fund manager. On the wall behind his enormous desk, there's even a photograph of Wall Street antihero Gordon Gekko. But on this May morning, the daytime television show flickering on his sleek, flat-screen set betrays his role as a master of an entirely different universe: women's fashion.

Green, the billionaire owner of the Arcadia Group, which controls a clutch of British clothing chains including Miss Selfridge and Wallis, is watching a spot about the latest fashion collection to hit Topshop, the jewel in Arcadia's crown. The much ballyhooed line inspired by Kate Moss--the supermodel's wardrobe formed the basis of the designs--went on sale the previous night at the chain's flagship store in London. Basking in the nonstop Moss-fueled coverage, Green can't help smiling: "You couldn't dream for a better start," he says. On May 9, the hype crossed the Atlantic when Barneys, one of New York City's toniest department stores, sold out of its special Topshop collection of Moss's striped blazers, skinny jeans and hot pants in four hours. Even the mannequins were stripped of their dresses.

Fired up by demand like that, Topshop is all set to go it alone. Days after the Barneys launch, Green announced plans to invest $100 million in Topshop's first three stand-alone stores in the U.S.--including a 70,000-sq.-ft. flagship in New York City--next spring. Topshop's U.S. adventure is the latest charge for growth among fast-fashion retailers, which specialize in constantly updated collections of cool clothing at prices so low the clothes are almost disposable. Over the past nine years, Topshop has carved an enviable niche atop this sector in Britain by appealing to a broader demographic than its competitors, by getting its new designs quickly to market and--in a category where inexpensive too often equals cheap--by emphasizing quality. This combination of fashion and value has "changed the way we dress," says Lauretta Roberts, editor of Drapers, the British fashion-business bible. That mix has also made the retailer a hit not just with the masses but with celebrities and fashion bigwigs as well. No American fashion editor's trip to Britain is complete, for example, without a pilgrimage to Topshop.

The Topshop formula is proving not just popular but profitable too. The chain made around $200 million in pretax profits last year on revenues of approximately $1.14 billion. That's about half the total profits and a third of sales at the privately owned Arcadia Group. It wasn't always this way, says Nick Bubb, a retail analyst at Pali International in London--less than 10 years ago, profits were as little as a tenth of last year's.

How did Topshop turn it around? By heading (relatively) upscale. Tired of its reputation for tackiness and losing out to budget chains in the '90s, Topshop's managers decided to stop competing just on price. "The decision was made to create a fashion authority," says Mary Homer, a joint managing director of Topshop who's been at the retailer for 20 years. (Green, a retail entrepreneur with years of experience in various types of businesses, acquired Arcadia in 2002 and helped execute the strategy already under way.) The company now employs 22 of its own designers, up from about a dozen in 2002, and they aim to create new looks just as deftly as the designers can copy those from the catwalks.

Getting new fashions into stores even faster than before also became a central part of Topshop's revival. While traditional clothing retailers might take six weeks to get a design to sales floors, Topshop's trucks are delivering new pullovers to its outlets usually just two weeks after suppliers have received the order. The result: Topshop debuts hundreds of new pieces in its London flagship outlet every week. And if the emphasis on speed and stylishness means Topshop's togs are a bit more expensive, then so be it. "If we can get it in four weeks in the U.K., we'll buy it at four weeks in the U.K. rather than buying it cheaper" elsewhere over a longer time frame, says Karyn Fenn, Topshop's other joint managing director. That's a premium the chain's customers have come to expect and are willing to pay for. A halter top, for example, might cost three times as much at Topshop as a comparable piece from H&M.

With 300 stores in Britain and 100 international outlets (all franchises) in Asia, Europe and Latin America, Topshop is looking to expand further overseas. Even after opening its biggest international store in Stockholm, Green says, Scandinavia still holds tremendous potential. But to grow much larger, Topshop will have to make some radical changes. Today, no matter where Topshop's smock dresses or miniskirts are stitched together--or where they're destined--they all pass through Britain. "The existing franchising model and supply chain would not work for significant global expansion, and will need to be adapted," Green says. To construct an efficient, decentralized distribution system is a logistics puzzle that management is attempting to solve.

As the company retools its supply chain, Topshop is beginning to focus on the U.S. The track record of British clothing retailers in the States is not particularly auspicious. Several British retailers, including the ubiquitous British chains Next and Marks & Spencer, have retreated after failing to come to grips with the ultracompetitive U.S. market.

Topshop's European rivals, on the other hand, have been quick to pile into the relatively untapped U.S. market--while fast fashion accounts for around 12% of the British clothing market, it is just 1% of the total in the U.S., according to Bain, a consulting firm. Spying massive opportunities, Spain's Zara has two dozen stores in the U.S.; Swedish chain H&M boasts more than 100. Not Topshop. Though it has sold individual collections in America--along with the Kate Moss range at Barneys, Topshop's Unique line sells in the Opening Ceremony boutique in New York City--it has not followed with any stand-alone stores before now. Until those locations are open, the Topshop brand will have a built-in test market in its chic department-store partners. Moss's 50-piece collection might seem cheap compared with most everything else Barneys has to offer--prices range from around $24 for a strappy tank top to $300 for a leather jacket--but these days, says Robert Burke, a retail consultant in New York, fashion retail's territorial lines are blurring. "Traditional categories no longer exist," he says. "There's almost a reverse snobbery today: people really like the idea of mixing a variety of price points." In other words, few fashionistas think twice about pairing a $1,000 jacket with a $20 T shirt anymore. Launching Moss's opening collection in Barneys, Burke says, makes "perfect sense."

However, with competitors like H&M and Zara already flourishing in the U.S., is there room for Topshop? "H&M and Zara are hitting the ball out of the park," says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a New York--based retail consultancy. But thanks to its broader customer appeal, Davidowitz says, the potential for Topshop "is better than either of these." Not that there isn't plenty of opportunity to occupy Topshop at home. The company is looking at ways of expanding its brand into new areas in Britain too, from confectionery to luggage to footwear. With Topshop stores already selling 35,000 pairs of shoes each week, says Green, "we've got a very good shoe business. Is there a Topshop shoe business in its own right?"

If it's to succeed in the U.S., Topshop will have to win over the American version of loyal shoppers like Caroline Dickinson. A few weeks ago in London, the 21-year-old student waited in line for four hours for the launch of Moss's collection at Topshop. She planned to buy a $100 white cotton dress to wear at her university ball. By the time she got inside, however, she was told that item wasn't available. Unperturbed, Dickinson emerged 15 minutes later and a few hundred dollars lighter with two other dresses and a couple of vests. She vowed to come back and track down that white frock another day. That is the kind of loyalty any retailer would envy.