KEY POINTS:
Kirsten MacFarlane meets the marketing guru charged with reviving the British chain's image.
I'm loitering outside Topshop in London's Oxford Circus, looking for signs of high-end Bond St defectors coming to shop at the store.
It was fashion marketing guru Jo Farrelly's idea to check whether the
chain still has credibility among the fashion elite. Farrelly, Topshop's former marketing director (and until last week its consultant) explains her reasons for encouraging me out on the street over the phone from her home in Ireland shortly before she leaves for Air New Zealand Fashion Week.
"Topshop is now associated with a cooler group of designers doing some really interesting fashion.
"At the end of the 1990s, fashion was all about logo-mania and designer labels," says Irish-born Farrelly, who previously worked for Levi's in Belgium.
"We wanted to embody that, selling clothing for a more individual shopper, someone much cooler who would mix and match, buy a bit of vintage, a bit of high street and designer labels. The time was right to capitalise on the idea, so we did, and we turned Topshop around."
The policy of fashion democracy not only appealed to the masses, it resulted in bumper profits. Topshop, once a cheap and-not-so cheerful chain, is now a fashion phenomenon.
The Oxford Street store alone takes in £100 million ($292 million) a year, incorporates TS boutique, a store within a store, Unique, Topshop's in-house designer range, and a vintage range.
In an average week the entire chain will sell about 33,000 pairs of jeans and 40,000 vests. Thirty pairs of knickers are sold every minute.
This turnaround was largely brought about by the dream team of Farrelly and Topshop's former brand director, Jane Shepherdson. Their strategy was simple: they loved to shop and so did their customers.
In retail, it's essential to have a point of view and the two fashion experts wanted Topshop to be the absolute authority in fashion.
They began by encouraging support of young designers, and now Topshop sponsors the British Fashion Council's New Generation Award.
The executive team also focused on delivering Prada-like service in store. Farrelly introduced the "Topshelf to Go" service, in which a branded Mercedes packed full of the best buys is delivered to customers at work or home.They also hired style advisers to help shoppers put together a season's look.
But Farrelly says, "moving the sleeping giant" into the cool retail zone took a huge leap of faith.
"Before I came along, there wasn't even a marketing director [at Topshop]. I was very iffy about the brand. But Jane has a very 'can do' attitude and she gave me a lot of creative freedom."
Topshop's Unique collection, says Farrelly, is now put together by an army of talented designers and the latest collection is showing on Friday in London.
Farrelly also pioneered a radical change in shop music, making Topshop the first to introduce instore DJs and video walls.
As Farrelly told Charlotte Williamson from the Guardian in 2004: "Music is incredibly important in our stores for creating the right atmosphere for our brand. We spent a lot of time getting it right."
At the time Farrelly would change the music to match the clothes. "We can easily emulate a certain fashion trend depending on what music is playing."
Three years on at Topshop Oxford Circus, the racks are full of 70s retro flash, and the music is equally edgy.
"The big principle of Topshop is to give something back to the fashion industry and the upcoming designers. They are the single largest supporter of talent here."
Last year Sir Philip Green, self-made billionaire and boss of Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop, clinched a starry deal with supermodel Kate Moss.
Moss' Autumn/Winter collection is about to launch in Topshop and as I walk around the flagship shop in Oxford Circus, close to the BBC, I see her image looming large.
"Kate is a very stylish person and very supportive of Topshop. But this new label mustn't take away from the support to the designers."
Last year, Topshop's talented brand director Jane Shepherdson left the company, recently reappearing as a consultant at ethical fashion brand People Tree. A couple of months after her resignation from Topshop, Shepherdson criticised fast fashion in a thinly-veiled attack on the chain and said it was giving people wardrobes full of cheap rubbish.
Shepherdson appears to be spearheading the ethical clothing revolution, and is predicting that shoppers will soon be putting ethical considerations before price - which could be bad news for Topshop and its high street rivals.
Farrelly is reluctant to criticise her former employer, and says the time was right to move on.
"I have no set plans," she says airily. "But I'm really excited about coming to New Zealand. I'll be looking for emerging talent doing directional, experimental, really interesting fashion."
Back at London's Topshop, I spot my a first group of Bond St defectors - a gaggle of blonde, Posh Spice-bobbed 40-somethings, heading straight for the racks of sequinned tops.
As a fashion marketing guru, Farrelly's on the money.
