Getting critical at Topman

Nursing a glass of champagne and feeling conspicuously old at last week’s pre-opening party for the refurbished and expanded Topman Oxford Circus, there was a minor glitch. Owner, Sir Philip Green, arrived and following a quick chat with your correspondent, he headed off to have a few words with the brand’s management.

Pretty much everything had come together at the last minute and even as the guests were arriving, final VM adjustments were still being undertaken. For Sir Philip however, this was not the main focus. His attention had been caught by a group of mid-shop rails on the shop’s upper floor. A third party said that the height of these pieces of equipment had caused the retail entrepreneur disquiet, as they prevented unobstructed views across the floor. The same person then asked “What are we supposed to do? Cut the legs off?”

Well bluntly, yes – that would be the general idea. Sir Philip is one of those rare retail beasts, a man who can spot when something needs doing, even if the overall picture if very good indeed. The rails in question were home to ranges by various up-and-coming designers and clearly needed a degree of prominence. That said, whether they merited quite such an in-your-face presence is a moot point, and things being the way they are, there is a strong possibility that they have probably subsequently been lowered.

This is of course a fairly minor quibble. As an exercise in mass market fashion retailing, this is about as powerful as it gets and will certainly appeal to the customers it is targeting. And the really good thing about Topman Oxford Cirucs is that while it may be a flagship for the brand, there is every reason to suppose that much of what is on display will be capable of replication across the chain. This is modular store design at its best. Almost every element of the interior can be taken in isolation and reproduced elsewhere – and yet oddly, the effect of the Oxford Circus store is of a one-off.

By now, most of the street’s other retailers will have been in to take a look at what has become of this fashion wunderkind and will probably be considering how to respond. They will have a hard job. What is on view in this store is a design that is the outcome of a programme of finessing and revising a blueprint first seen in New York earlier this year. And it will go further…under Green’s alert and critical gaze. For a full review, see this Friday’s Retail Week.