Is Topshop Returning To The High Street?
It could be time to dust off the GEEK t-shirts...
Spoiler alert - nobody really knows. However, there was a brief moment a few days ago where the whole country was practically vibrating with excitement after Topshop posted this very cryptic video on their socials.
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After seeing it relentlessly on every feed, story and FYP for about two days straight - Topshop stated that they were simply promoting their new installation in collaboration with artist Russ Jones. They then went on to announce several gift card treasure hunts around London and have also relaunched the official ‘topshop.com’ domain which now simply says ‘Coming Soon’.
The good news is that even though plans for stores re-opening haven’t been confirmed, they also haven’t been ruled out. After purchasing Topshop in 2021, ASOS recently sold 75% of the brand to HeartLand who have expressed interest in bringing back physical stores in the future.
Even though the closure of Topshop stores nationwide was a dark day for the UK, I think we can all admit it was very rapidly going downhill and in need of a total re-vamp. I feel somewhat qualified to make that statement because if you don’t know, I worked there on and off (mostly on) for 5 years, across four different stores! Growing up, Topshop was my idea of heaven. If you weren’t around at it’s peak, then it’s hard to explain the significance it had in all of our teenage lives. Compared to prices now it would be considered reasonable, but at the time it felt like a luxury usually reserved for when you had birthday money to spend. Even then, you’d most likely be coming home with these…
Whenever I would visit my grandma who lives in Leeds, she would take me to her local store and I’d spend forever browsing through each and every item. I’d carry piles and piles into the fitting room and have an absolute blast trying it all on, even if I couldn’t take it all home with me. I’ve discussed this in previous newsletters but I was in serious awe of all the girls who worked in Topshop. As a 12-15 year old they all seemed so mature and wore the best outfits i’d ever seen, because at this point social media barely existed and Facebook was exclusively used for albums of house parties. This meant my only real style inspiration was taken from Tumblr and the girls I saw working in clothes shops. I practically counted down the days until I turned 16 and could apply for a job there.
Getting handed that purple lanyard for the first time was one of the most exciting moments ever, I’d never felt so cool in my whole life. I dug deep into my archive to find this, but what better time than now to reminisce on the glory days? I couldn’t find many other pictures from this era of Topshop except these two…
(The rest of this newsletter is going behind the paywall because I’m about to expose years of questionable outfit, hair and make-up choices!)