Do we need to talk about Topshop?

[TableNiner]

I think it will probably get bought as it’s such an iconic brand but not sure it will be the same. It’s not been so popular for a while now, turns out it wasn’t just me getting old!

What are your memories/best buys? I’ve not been to a shop for at least ten years but in the old days you could get really nice on trend basics, jeans and cardigans and normal length tops. I liked the Martha jeans

I used to love Topshop so much from the mid 90s as a teenager until about 2005/2006. Now they are still designing for the teenagers who shop in Primark but not charging prices teenagers are willing to pay.
It used to be such a brilliant shop.

Baxter jeans were my favourite. I still have a pair.
In fact all jeans.
The best t-shirt I ever owned was from there in 2010. I still wear it.

I love Toppers but agree it was Jane Shepherdson who made it excellent. All went a bit downhill when she left.

I remember their ranges with Kate Moss, I think I still have a couple of things from it. I reckon it was 2005 it first launched.
Loved topshop back then. Still love their jeans, but buy little else there these days. Their shoes were great back then also.

1999, Topshop Oxford Circus, the descent down those escalators at the entrance, pure heaven

Some of my absolute favourite clothes and shoes ever are from Topshop, but I haven't bought anything from there in a long time

No doubt there’ll be some financial shenanigans Apparently the staff pension fund is empty
He lives Monaco and the wife is majority shareholder in top shop

They had a tall collection, great, but the sizing was all wrong.
The fashions of recent have been all Kardashianesk, not even the young ones were buying it. Plastic see through trousers? Who buys that shit?

The last happy spree I had in TopShop was round about 1992, in of all places Swindon! They had a huge £5 sale and I remember picking up about five dresses and a really quirky duffel bag made of recycled fabric. Wish I still had the dresses, tbh, they were proper grunge . The TopShop in my home town used to be tiny but really good in the late 80s. I had a lovely pair of jersey trousers and a boat necked top from there. Funny how those things stick in your mind!

I still have a silk shirt that somehow mostly survived DH putting it in a 90 degree wash - I love that shirt! I can’t imagine getting anything silk there now. That dates from about 2012! I do have recentish jeans from them - mom and wide-leg flares - and a plain denim miniskirt but I don’t think I’ve bought a top there in ages as all are now polyester. Most of my wardrobe used to be from there.

I used to buy from them, but they were never my first choice, I always preferred Chelsea Girl and C&A

Good God - there's someone even older than I am on MN!

I was a manger for Topshop in the noughties and my staff and I were treated like royalty in our small city . We never queued for bars or clubs and everyone would recognise us on a night out where the vast majority of girls would be wearing Topshop. The brand conferences were out of this world too with top djs and free bars.

I was there for the transition from Stuart Rose to Philip Green and the later departure of Jane Shepherdson and I agree that was the start of the decline. At first it wasn't so noticeable as the head office team carried on Jane's vision but overtime I think they all left.

I remember someone from head office telling me Kate Moss' design meetings consisted of her dumping a load of filthy, smelly clothes on the table and then saying she wanted something like these!

Luckily, they offered to buy me out of my pension a few years ago which I accepted, but I really feel for all my former colleagues who still work there. It's awful to see what the brand's become compared to what it was.

I am than most on this thread and remember Top Shop from the 1980s. Back then it formed a group of marketed at teens, reasonably priced, fashionable, seasonal clothes, along with Chelsea Girl, Miss Selfridge etc. (Before River Island and when Zara was the BHS of Spain- I still have a long cardigan from Zara bought in 1986- I'd like to see their stuff now last that long!)
I have a teen myself now, and live abroad. On Oxford St a couple of years ago, giving her the run of the teen fashion shops we ventured into TS. Astonished to see ridiculous prices for the same quality as places like H&M etc.
Not at all surprised they're struggling based on price alone.
Nor does it surprise me that that foul man is involved.

I am gutted about this. I spend half my 20s flitting about in Topshop Tea Dresses. I bought my whole wardrobe for my first job from there too - they had a bit of a pencil skirt collection going on at the time. 2006-2010 was such a golden period.

I really regret selling my clothes now, but I was broke and also moving abroad.

Its quite a surprise. I especially loved Topshop on Oxford St, it was a dept store in its own right, going as a teen with all the funky bags on top, finding something unique, and the second hand clothes and hidden shoe section on the ground floor.

Last buy was a brown front zip short and top (struggling to think of the name...body suit?) which I still love for £50. Tried to sell it on Ebay but glad I am keeping it. That was when I had a Topshop card before they stopped them. I could spend 250 a month in Topshop in the 00s. I never did, I used it maybe 2-3 times.

I still have a 90s hoodie from there , I can't remember the name but like a kaftan with a hood. Its still not back in fashion but I await the day

Loved it between 2004-2014.
I still wear Topshop jeans, great fit for me.

@MarmaladeTeepee

Did Kate Moss really do that? How funny / gross! I still have a couple of her topshop clothes from 2007/8ish. It was a nice collection

With my first proper salary I bought a beautiful wool coat. A military style in sage green with brown leather trimmings.

From the Bond Street store in 1982.

I think most things I wore from 2002-2007 were from Topshop, but then I got older 😔 I still occasionally bought accessories though - cheap sunglasses, bags and winter woollens were always a good shout. Haven’t been in this year though.

I still buy the odd bits from there to be honest, but you have to hunt the best bits down.

@pinkdragons hmmm not sure she had that much input, but I worked on footwear as an intern so I was an assistant to the assistants assistant. She did come past and say hi a few times. Once she was there about 6 minutes. I think they hung up the stuff they wanted to do and she waved her hand and said yep. I'm not a celebrity person and I don't get stars struck. I didn't particular think she was all that, but person but she very striking in person.

I can imagine Topshop as a bad concession in HOF, but I don't think they are quite the same now it's sports direct.

Where do the yoof shop now I'm 40 and been out of London 5 years.

I haven't found anything nice enough to justify their prices in over a decade so I'm not surprised at all. I'll be sad to see DPs go though and Wallis, frumpy as they are, do lovely coats.

I loved Top Shop in my teens and 20s. I remember the one in Newry in the mid 90s (long since closed and moved to a shopping centre) used to sell second hand Levis which was where I bought my first ever pair. They also had a big communal changing room which was hell on earth.

I still get the odd thing, usually in the sales. Their sizing always suited me.

Very sad, feels like the end of an era and my heart goes out to all the Arcadia employees although I hope Philip Green burns in hell.

Your annual reminder that Philip Green was hired by David Cameron to sort out wasteful public spending.

Not that I can take any pleasure in his downfall when the biggest losers are Arcadia employees and the biggest winners are probably Boohoo.

Ah this is making me nostalgic. I have a lovely silk Topshop strappy top. My favourite maternity outfit was a Topshop wrap dress. The dress I wore to take my daughter to go to register my daughter's birth was a Topshop dress - the same dress I'd worn on my first date with DH.

And I remember Chelsea Girl so well too. I loved Chelsea Girl.

What a bastard Phillip Green is.