Observer » TopShop

Today in Fashion: Kate Moss Doubles Her Salary; Lara Stone “Smizes”

Irina Aleksander — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:02:14 -0400

Philip Green, the owner of Topshop, has reviewed England's finances and has declared spending inefficient: "There is no reason why the government should not be as efficient as any good business." [Vogue UK]

Alexander McQueen will take control of the McQ contemporary line starting with the fall 2011 season. [WWD]

After her cocaine scandal, Kate Moss' salary doubled. [Mirror UK]

Vogue's November cover girl Lara Stone learned how to "smize" by watching America's Next Top Model. [Fashionologie]

If you want to learn to dress like Zoe Kravitz, here's how. [WWWD]

That Ain’t Snood

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:27:22 -0400

This past season, many designers displayed a new “It” accessory known as the snood. But in fact this accessory isn’t new at all, and this time around, isn’t even necessarily a snood.

The original snood emerged in the 1940s as a practical item for women working in factories: a crocheted hairpiece used to hold their locks back in a bun. They were economical in fabric, demonstrating a commitment to the war effort.

The brand Threeasfour displayed many traditional snoods, reminiscent of something our bubelehs might wear, in their spring 2009 ready-to-wear show, perhaps reflecting that our society is in the worst economic state since the Depression.

But Burberry’s snood, in the company’s basic plaid print, is selling for $300. It is being advertised as “a scarf of sorts” according to Burberry PR representative Andrew Fry. Made out of cashmere and fur, the item is supposed to be loosely draped around your head, unlike the original, snug snood.

Topshop stretched the term even further in their winter 2009 show, with snood-hooded tops and dresses for 90 pounds apiece, or about $150. Not so economical!

Topshop Browses for More Duds

Dana Rubinstein — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:29:51 -0400

Don’t let the overhyped unveiling of the superlatively trashy Topshop in Soho distract you—the British clothing store has never ceased its search for yet more Manhattan locations.

Retail brokers say that Topshop owner Sir Philip Green is continuing to search for at least another couple of spots, about 50,000 square feet each, in all of the obvious high-traffic places: Fifth Avenue, 34th Street, Lexington Avenue near Bloomingdale’s, Union Square, Times Square, the meatpacking district, the Upper East and Upper West sides. Basically, anywhere H&M has a store.

Sir Green, the owner of Topshop and apparently a bit of a micromanager, is said to be leading the search—even showing up personally to at least one empty retail space—and will be making all of the final decisions about where the clothier expands.

“They have not let up,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chair of retail leasing and sales for Prudential Douglas Elliman, and not involved in Topshop’s search. “Their plan was always to have at least a dozen stores in the tristate area, but the concentration is three in Manhattan.”

Anecdotally, the shop’s current location, at 478 Broadway, is doing well. On a recent visit to the shop at 8:30 p.m. on a weekday, there were still modest queues for the dressing rooms.

But if Topshop really wants to take on H&M, might we suggest lowering the prices? More than $100 for a simple blue blazer? Really?

drubinstein@observer.com

Wood War! Who Wins Today’s Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs? (UPDATED!)

Tom McGeveran — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:38:52 -0400

The New York Post: Last night, the President and First Lady arrived in England, bringing along hundreds of security guards and lots of vials of Barack Obama's blood. No, this isn't some kind of remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, though the British press is trying to play it that way. And that's a lot of what you get when you turn inside to read the story in today's Post, flagged on the front page with the headline “Cheery O in London,” which makes us wonder just how happy headline writers were when they realized the number of puns at low character-counts the new president would afford them. It's basically a dry rundown of the Obamas' day in London, much of it told through the lens of what British newspapers said about it, and some little squibs about what happened there yesterday. The piece has the most real estate on the front page, but it's a picture-treatment mostly (tune in tomorrow to see if they decide to find a picture of the Obamas with the Queen, or whether they decide they've already used that cover image today), hence no all-caps in the headline.

That honor is reserved for the Post's story about a proposal to reduce fare hikes on subways and buses by adding a 50-cent surcharge on taxi rides: “50¢ CAB TAX: New kick in teeth plan,” reads the headline. Out of a large “menu” of possible sources of revenue for the flailing Metropolitan Transportation Authority presented by Gov. David Paterson and Sheldon Silver, the cab tax is the one least likely, we think, to rile the populists. After all, looked at objectively, isn't it likely that a cab tax is less regressive than a fare hike on subways and buses? But again, the Post's complicated form of populism comes into play: the paper finds its angle interviewing cab drivers, who, probably correctly, calculate that riders will tip less once a fare hike goes through.

Enough “politics.” What will the inside of TopShop look like when the hoi polloi storm the doors at the British cut-rate fashion megastore opening on Broome and Broadway tomorrow morning? The Post got an exclusive look, and there are lots of pictures. Umm, the men's store is called “Topman.” The men most likely to shop there will understand why this is mildly amusing.

Daily News: It'd be a surprise if at least one top story didn't appear in both tabloids. What is more interesting is when both tabloids take the same crop of the same news photo for that story. That's what has happened with the picture of Barack and Michelle Obama appearing on the front page of both newspapers today. We decided to look in one place, by no means comprehensive but a frequent well of photographs for both newspapers, to see what options they had.

On Getty Images, a stock photography Web site, where there are 27 images available to subscribing news organizations of the Obamas arrival at Stansted Airport outside London, there really is only one where a) you can see both of their faces clearly (albeit in profile); b) the two are close enough together that you can crop the picture closely and get both of their faces in. So you see, there are technical reasons the pictures are often the same. But of course, you can write anything you want of a generic picture like “Obamas Arrive in England,” (or, as the Daily News billboards it, "ALL ABROAD"), and inside, the Daily News story is completely different from the Post's, focusing mostly on the fact that the Obamas are scheduled to meet the Queen today.

Michelle got the briefing on courtly etiquette and apparently briefed her husband on all of it on Air Force One. Do you still have to walk backwards out of the room when you leave her? Unclear. But you touch her hand instead of shaking it, and if she stops going for the chip-n-dipper, you're supposed to, too. All in all it's a weird reversal: the News goes for the soft, social touch with lots of little details while the Post does a wire-copyish dump.

Then you remember that the Post kind of takes Britain seriously in a way the News doesn't, and it all makes sense. One is reminded that the Post, despite those flags that have flanked the flag on the front page since Sept. 11, isn't quite an American company; the American approach is to find the Queen and everything about her kind of absurd and cute and funny, which is where the News story comes from.

The News stretches further into territory we thought belonged to the Post when it takes the rather drastic step of sexually objectifying our city's top baseball players. “The Jeter Meter: Our guide to sexiest ballplayers” uses a weird scoring system of 1 to 5 where 1 is ugly, to rank the top 10 New York players against Derek Jeter for sexiness. So, Derek Jeter is the sexiest, which is why he is not included; the rest are the 10 next sexiest, but all of them are already sexy, though some are only middling sexy and score 3's (nobody gets a 2 or a 1, so why bother with them?)

And there is something else: at the end, five players who are not from New York get honorable mentions. No offense, New York, but these five spots engage a larger, uh, playing field, with many more players to choose from. You leave the whole thing with the impression that New York City is home to America's ugliest ballplayers. By the way: “BERMAN GETS AXED; PAGE 5.” That's Len Berman, the NBC sports guy, who after more than two decades is leaving Chuck and Sue behind to fritter away their time asking the Mayor whether he has any tattoos.

General observations: We look inside the papers to see if we can understand anything about the cover decisions the newspapers made, but what we find when we get there isn't really a factor here. So while we found the News coverage added a dimension to the barrage of information about the Obamas in Britain once you made it inside, we are here to judge front-page treatment, and "ALL ABROAD" is first of all a bad pun; second of all a particularly inept one since it pictures the Obamas deboarding; and lastly conveys nothing specific: who is "all"? The Obamas? And isn't "abroad" a bit vague? "Cheery O in London" was annoying but it got the job done. Len Berman's firing is a good story, but how many people will know who "Berman" is without any other context? A good story with a useless Page One refer. The refer has roughly the same weight as the Post's TopShop deal, in which you know precisely what you are going to get before you open the paper. And then the Post makes the wise decision (finally!) to front-page a granular development in the transit story. Remember, many of your readers are picking the thing up on their way down the subway stairs. Synergy! The sexy Derek Jeter business looks like good old-fashioned tabloid fun; the fact that the operation is bungled doesn't matter because you'd have to buy the paper to find that out. But it's not enough.

Winner: The New York Post.

UPDATE: Look very closely at the photos on the front pages: they are not the same! Taken maybe half a second apart. We think the basic analysis we subjected the image to still stands, though. Hat tip to my former Triple-X Photo-Touch-playing self: your response time isn't what it was, but you got us there in the end.

Will You Drop for Topshop?

Meredith Bryan — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:01:00 -0400

Late last week, the comely blond British socialite and model Poppy Delevigne, 22, called from her Nolita apartment—several blocks from the new four-story, 40,000-square-foot Topshop behemoth lurking behind covered windows at Broadway and Broome—and described some of her favorite items from the British retail chain, like an “amazing” emerald-green, one-shouldered dress designed by the model Kate Moss. >

“They did it in red and I missed it in my size and I literally cried for days, and I wear that pretty much twice a month, especially when the sun comes out,” Ms. Delevigne said. “And then I have a leather jacket that I live in every day that I bought about two years ago. It looks so old and worn, no one believes that it’s Topshop!”

Ms. Delevigne said she’d probably wear the jacket to private events for the long-awaited opening of the New York store: intimate affairs for celebrities and “friends” of the brand, which include a dinner at Balthazar and a small party at Simon Hammerstein’s downtown club the Box on Thursday, April 2, the day that—barring unforeseen disaster—Topshop will finally fling open its doors stateside.

“We’ve been waiting with bated breath,” said TeenVogue fashion news director Jane Keltner, who conceived an entire feature on British style around the store’s original October opening date. “It’s just what the recession-weary New York City fashion girl wants and needs right now—great clothes at a good price.”

But isn’t the New York City fashion girl utterly glutted with cheap chic imports, from Zara to H&M? Is it possible that, like an elusive love partner, the special appeal of Topshop has resided in its inaccessibility?

The store’s mobbed Oxford Circus flagship hawks acres of neon gummy bracelets, Batman T-shirts and shlocky accessories alongside J Brand for Topshop jeans and Ms. Moss’ exclusive three-year-old line. In New York, the brand has thus far enjoyed a more rarefied clientele: the kind of stylish New Yorker who travels often to London, or has friends who do.

Not that even the jet-setters among us won’t be happy to escape prohibitive exchange rates.

“I am living for the New York opening of Topshop!” emailed American maternity designer Liz Lange the other day from Anguilla, where she was vacationing with her blue paisley cotton racer-back Topshop beach cover-up (about $40 at the Oxford Circus store). “Everyone I know who likes to shop and likes fashion is counting the minutes.”

There have been a lot of minutes. The chain’s quotable head honcho, Sir Philip Green, told Women’s Wear Daily that the process has been “a logistical nightmare,” fingering the construction snafus and permit delays on the landmarked building for the thrice-delayed opening, and denying that the economy was at all a factor .

New York fans have been making do in the meantime with Topshop “capsule” collections at Barneys (2007) and Opening Ceremony (2004 until just recently), where the store’s inexpensive knock-off wares basked in the reflected glow of designer offerings by Proenza Schouler and Alexander Wang. In September, a U.S. Web site finally allowed New Yorkers to begin shopping online, and this week, guerilla street teams will blanket downtown with Topshop gift cards. Then, at 11 a.m. on April 2, Sir Philip himself will appear at the flagship, accompanied, Topshop execs hope but will not confirm, by Ms. Moss herself. “We’re making homemade British biscuits,” said Andrew Leahy, the genial London-based Topshop publicity director.

PALTROW’S PICK

To some, it seems like an awfully grand rollout.

“They’ve been acting like it’s the second coming!” exclaimed American Elle writer Maggie Bullock, a loyal Topshop customer since she studied fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins almost a decade ago. “I feel like it’s been announced that it’s coming 17 times. Topshop is fantastic, but it’s not going to solve every wardrobe problem in the world. I moved back to the States from England seven years ago, and there was nothing, there was no place that could substitute for Topshop, but now I feel like other places have come along and you do get some of that hit of fast fashion. H&M has gotten much better and is actually more of a competitor than it used to be.”

Julie Baumgardner, a 25-year-old fashion publicist who first shopped at Topshop in London at age 17, agreed. “It pitched itself as the British Barneys taste with Urban Outfitters wallet, but in reality, it’s more like Urban Outfitters taste with Barneys Co-op prices,” she said. “I’ve seen shoes costing up to $250!” (That said, “I really love my gray low-rise skinny jeans.”) Ms. Baumgardner ventured that the store has let their prices climb and their quality slack after accruing an almost cultlike celebrity fan base that includes Lindsay Lohan, Keira Knightley, Kate Bosworth, Mariah Carey and Gwyneth Paltrow (who recently featured a Topshop dress in her disturbingly addictive weekly lifestyle newsletter, Goop).

“I obviously am excited that it’s coming to the U.S. since it’s another relatively inexpensive outlet for cute, trendy clothes,” said Ms. Baumgardner. “But it’s frustrating to observe that the corruption of its identity is directly proportional to the hype it receives.”

But Topshop’s defenders swear that the store deserves the hype.

“It is very cool, it’s very edgy, it’s taking like an Ossie Clark–type inspiration, which is a cool dress as opposed to a preppy dress,” asserted Plum Sykes, the British socialite, novelist and Vogue correspondent, whose husband proclaimed an outfit involving a tailored white Topshop blazer his favorite outfit she’d ever worn.

“It’s very English in its treatment of dresses; it’s always dresses with the ripped fishnet tights and biker boots. Probably more what you would think of as the Lower East Side cool, but even beyond that, with the English eccentricity wrapped in. It isn’t like that sort of American Main Street brand, like a J. Crew or a Banana Republic, that is very much trying not to be too cool, do you know what I mean?”

“It is along the lines of Club Monaco, classic basics, but slightly more fun than that,” suggested Rebecca Guinness, another New York–based British gal about town.

“I think the American equivalent is when Target has the designers do things, like the McQueen collection,” said Poppy de Villeneuve, a New York–based British photographer (not to be confused with Ms. Delevigne) who often pairs Topshop T-shirts with skirts by her good friend Zac Posen. “It’s like H&M but it’s more … It’s very British. It’s kind of what the girls on the street wear in a very cool way. The way the British put things together, they’re kind of a bit more haphazard about it.”

Mr. Leahy revealed that the new store will feature a Kate Moss boutique for the model’s line, which is produced four times yearly and will soon include lingerie. There will also be new collections by insidery British designers like Jonathan Saunders and Preen and areas for costume jewelry, shoes, maternity, petites, talls, men, hats and bags—a veritable department store of cheap, aggressively cool stuff! “We know that in New York there are a lot of brands offering great basics,” he said. “So ours will be a little more fashion-heavy, more fashion specialties per square meter in a way. We don’t buy huge bulk of any one style, we don’t buy millions or even hundreds of thousands; we might buy 5,000 or we might buy 50.”

‘TROUSERS’ AND ‘JUMPERS’

Indeed, the store cycles in fresh inventory constantly, and is known for reincarnating favorite styles with small stylistic adjustments or fabric switch-ups rather than just ordering more of the same.

The Oxford Circus flagship has long been a testing area of sorts for more fashion-forward innovations, and it is hoped that the New York store, the brand’s first nonfranchised, fully owned international concern, will serve as a similar hub of creativity and experimentation, continuing to focus on cultivating British design talent (“Few people do,” said Mr. Leahy), but open to collaborating with Americans, too. (Though the U.S. Web site includes the charming terminology “trousers” and “jumpers.”)

Retail analysts are enthusiastic.

“It’s going to be incredible!” thundered Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting outfit headquartered in New York. “If you go back and look at the big stores in New York that are underwater, you have Macy’s down, and you have Bloomingdale’s, which is a division of Macy’s; you have Saks losing $100 million last quarter. …”

Topshop, he said, was at the forefront of the winning formula familiar to us from H&M and Zara. “We’re getting a new wave of imported stores from Europe, and honestly, they appear to be doing very well,” he said. “And a lot of our fashion retailers, like Abercrombie, which is in the shithouse; Gap, the largest apparel chain in the U.S., down six straight years—ours are all doing terrible. But theirs seem to be growing very rapidly, and suddenly they’re able to come here. I don’t think we’re able to go there!”

Until now, Topshop has been in the enviable position of being able to offer good prices (not as low as H&M’s, but, at $80 for the popular Baxter skinny jean and $125 for a neon leopard print “playsuit,” still more affordable than boutique shopping) with a elusive dose of jet-set cache.

But despite its astonishing inventory and cute, compelling British-ness, some Topshop devotees admit that “you’ve got to be really careful of if you’re trying to be a global brand like that, about actually cannibalizing your coolness by being successful,” as Ms. Sykes put it.

“Just in terms of being selfish about things I wear, when people are like, ‘Oh, that’s so cute, where can I get?’, I’m like, ‘You can’t!’” said Ms. Guinness, bemoaning the impending ubiquity of her favorite Topshop items.

Ms. Delevigne noted that she’d once shown up to a summer cocktail party in London wearing the exact same Kate Moss for Topshop tennis dress as two other attendees, a scene that she predicted would start taking place in New York, too.

Still, she pointed out: “It would be a real shame if you turned up at a party and someone else was in the same Balenciaga dress as you, but if you turn up and you’re in the same Topshop dress, it’s absolutely fine, because you know you didn’t pay that much for it and it kind of makes it more fun anyway.”

In London, swarms of international tourists and leggings-mad teenagers have done nothing to calm the rising tide of Topshop mania.

“To be honest, the one in London is so mobbed by 14-year-olds I cannot even tell you,” Ms. Sykes complained. “It’s like going to a rock concert. … I’m 38 years old, so I’ve got to be feeling really, really up for it if I’m going to shop there as opposed to shopping at, like, Alexander McQueen.”

And so New York women are bracing themselves for battle.

“All my American friends, they’re literally going mad about it,” Ms. Delevigne said. “There’s a lot of complaining. … I think the more it’s been delayed, the more anticipation there is.”

—Additional reporting
by Doree Shafrir

mbryan@observer.com

Fashion Roundup: Kelly Cutrone Doesn’t Do Spin-Offs; Louis Vuitton Still Profitable; TopShop’s Plans for Soho Store

Irina Aleksander — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:01:32 -0400

Kelly Cutrone passed on MTV's New York-based Hills spin-off; instead, she will executive produce her own show and become "the Ryan Seacrest of fashion." [The Cut]

The Accessories Council's Excellence awards will be held on November 3 at Cipriani on 42nd Street; accepting awards will be Jimmy Choo designer Tamara Mellon, Stella McCartney, Vogue editor Sally Singer, and Emilio Pucci. [WWD]

French holding company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is pulling in profits and its stock is rising despite the recent economic downturn. [WWD]

If Topshop ever finally opens in Soho, it will bring with it a new line, D.I.P., created especially for the store. [Vogue UK]

Now that Los Angeles Fashion Week is being produced by Smashbox without the help of former partner IMG, the event may not survive. [WSJ]

Fashion Roundup: Topshop Delay in Soho; Olsen Twins Eye Men’s Wear; Henry Holland’s 90210 Inspiration

Irina Aleksander — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:42:23 -0400

Topshop, which was scheduled to open in Soho this fall, has announced that it won’t open until March due to construction delays. [WWD]

London runways were all about prints yesterday. [Vogue UK]

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's clothing line, The Row, may expand into men's wear. [WWD]

Goth is no longer just for tortured teenagers. [NY Times]

House of Holland designer Henry Holland, who made headlines yesterday with his polka-dot and floral prints, said his collection was inspired by the original Beverly Hills: 90210 series. [Style.com]

Fashion Roundup: Sean Avery’s Gonna Be In Pictures; Anna Wintour Supports Barack Obama Tonight; Topshop Available in the U.S.

Irina Aleksander — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:51:20 -0400

Sean Avery's internship at Vogue is now the basis of a movie. [HR]

The fund-raiser for Barack Obama starring Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker at Charles Nolan's studio is tonight! [WWD]

There are now 152 fashion weeks in the world. Is it even possible to attend all of them? [NY Times]

Natalie Portman sat front row at Derek Lam this morning. [WWD]

If you can't wait for Topshop to open in Soho, you can log onto the website and order Kate Moss' collection in the U.S. starting today. [NY Daily News]

PETA was back outside the tents today protesting Dennis Basso. [The Cut]

Fashion Roundup: Former Chloe Creative Director to Celine; Katie Holmes’ Fave Denim Brand Gets a Fashion Week Show

Irina Aleksander — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:08:22 -0400

Phoebe Philo, who was the creative director of Chloe from 2001 to 2006, has been named creative director at Celine. [Vogue UK]

Topshop has pushed back its Soho store opening to November. [WWD]

Everyone wants to know who will be this year's Fashion Week darling. [NY Times]

Prps, the baggy boyfriend jean worn by Katie Holmes, will have its first Fashion Week presentation on September 10. [FWD]

For her first New York presentation, Melissa Coker of the Los Angeles-based label Wren enlisted Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Karen Elson and Sarah Sophie Flicker for a three channel video installation in which they will recite lines from films like Robert Altman’s 3 Women. [WWD]

Meanwhile, Band of Outsiders' presentation on Saturday will feature a video short directed by the designer, Scott Sternberg, featuring Kirsten Dunst, Max Minghella and rapper Charles Hamilton. [WWD]

The Uniqlo store in Soho is introducing a robot called "wakamaru" that will greet customers, make eye contact, recognize people, move around, tell customers about store promotions and "lead staff in motivational morning exercises." [FWD]

Fashion Roundup: Tim Gunn Does Not Approve of Cindy McCain’s Fashion; Mark Ronson Supports His Sister; Topshop’s Denim Plans

Irina Aleksander — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:50:58 -0400

In addition to thinking that Cindy McCain's hairstyle makes her look like she's gotten a face lift, Tim Gunn now also thinks that her clothes look "duct-taped." [The Cut]

Mark Ronson will return as the DJ for his sister Charlotte Ronson's Spring 2009 show at Bryant Park in September, after Ronson sibling Samantha took over the turntables for the past few seasons. [FWD]

Just in time for its arrival in New York, Topshop is collaborating with J. Brand on three styles of jeans and naming them after New York neighborhoods: The Brooklyn, The Manhattan, and The Nolita. (Someone should tell Topshop that two of those are boroughs.) [Vogue UK]

Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier will reportedly attend Sonia Rykiel's 40th anniversary of being in business in Paris in October. [WWD]

Joshua Jackson, who recently moved into an apartment in New York with Diane Kruger, is having to compromise over closet space. [Vogue UK]

Pucci executives may have hit up Paris-based designer Peter Dundas of Revillon to fill Matthew Williamson's former position of creative director. [WWD]

A new exhibit titled Gothic: Dark Glamour, curated by museum director, Valerie Steele, will open at the Fashion Institute of Technology on September 4. [FWD]