topshop

The Britain-based Topshop is one of fashion's fastest-growing names. With 300 new styles each week, it's also one of the most up-to-date. Hungry customers devour its offerings to the tune of 40,000 pairs of shoes per week, 2500 dresses per day, and eight underwear sets per minute -- and our readers have nominated Topshop for a Luxist Readers' Choice Award in the Best Boutique/Department Store category.

Topshop has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time, especially when compared to its 19^th Century-born peers. The company started out in 1964 as a single boutique in the North of England, buried in the basement of a department store called Peter Robinson. Later that year, Topshop scored a spot in the chain's London location and soon became a standalone retailer.

By 1994, Topshop had grown so much that it expanded to fill the entire 90,000 square-foot space and became the retailer's flagship. The store now attracts more than 200,000 people per week, while Topshop.com attracts an average of 700,000 visitors per month, according to the company's website. There, customers can browse outerware, handbags, jewelry, and just about anything else one could wear, including collaborative collections with fashion luminaries such as Kate Moss and Celia Birtwell.

Topshop currently operates 300 stores in the U.K. and 100 abroad, including a new fashion emporium in New York's trendy SoHo shopping district -- a long way from a basement in northern England, indeed.

Cast your vote for the Readers' Choice Awards at http://www.luxist.com/awards-vote/accessories-awards.

London fashionistas will have a chance to wear a celebrity's designer gown courtesy of Topshop. The brand has created the Dress Me Up Campaign which features designer dresses owned by stars like Kate Moss, Freida Pinto, Scarlett Johansson, Naomi Campbell and Dita Von Teese. Later dresses will be auctioned off with all proceeds from the rental fee and the auction going to Topshop's chosen charities Age Concern and Help the Aged.

Kate Moss is set to become the world's richest model thanks to a lucrative new deal she's about to ink with British mogul Sir Philip Green, shown with Kate above, and TV producer extraordinaire Simon Cowell. The 35-year-old supermodel is joining forces with the two men on a new $1.6 billion global multi-faceted entertainment company. Green owns the Topshop brand which Moss recently collaborated with for a new collection. Moss will direct the style and image of the as-yet-unnamed empire, as well as give fashion-related branding advice, under the terms of the deal which could net her up to $80 million based on profit-sharing arrangements, the London Daily Mail reports. The sum would double Moss' fortune giving her a net worth of about $160 million, the paper notes. In essence the plan is to merchandise the hell out of Cowell's hit TV shows both here and abroad. The prospect of Moss getting involved in the music side of the business has also been floated.

As the fashion world eagerly awaits New York Fashion Week in a matter of days, the clothes we're seeing now in stores and tempting ad campaigns are focused on rich fabric and unique detailing -- in many cases, hand-crafted lace made by Parisian artisans or breathable lace from Japan. The goal goes beyond creating one-of-a-kind pieces: designers are hoping to make it impossible for mass brands like H&M or TopShop to copy their work when the materials themselves are out of reach. Designers made use of age-old, labor-intensive techniques to distinguish themselves from the knockoffs, many of which appear on shelves before the originals are even produced.

And shoppers are responding to the shift, favoring an investment in iconic brands that are easily recognizable (think Prada florals, Dries van Noten marbelized prints) instead of the cookie cutter clothes glutting the market. Because as fun as the cheap thrills are, there's nothing so demoralizing to a fashionista as walking down the street and seeing a bratty thirteen year old wearing the identical hippie tunic from Forevs 21.

On the heels of Kate Moss' already impressive fall ad campaign successes comes news of more coups scored by the eternally gorgeous supermodel: two more major contracts and some serious magazine exposure. On the ad campaign front, her latest big bucks gigs come courtesy of Yves Saint Laurent's beauty line (above) and renowned jeweler Bulgari, both shot in classic black-and-white.

In addition, she appears on the covers of the latest issues of both Vogue and Interview; in the latter she poses totally nude, and she also appears topless (yet again) in a stunning spread for the September issue of W magazine. All this comes as she launches her new clothing line for British retailer Topshop, to great fanfare. We predict the Kate Moss brand will develop into an extremely profitable luxury goods enterprise, with many more product lines to come.

Over 60,000 crystals adorn the Topshop dress worn by Kate Moss to the Swarovski Fashon Rocks fashion show and concert. The dress, which is now up for auction, is similar to a 1920's Flapper style cocktail length dress in Moss's personal collection and features hand-beaded Swarovski crystals in shades of silver, gray, and green. The auction started October 19th and runs through the 28th with proceeds going towards the Princes' Trust Charity. No word yet on where bidding stands but the dress is estimated with a retail value around £40,000.


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