Topshop sets stage for high street return – but can it go beyond nostalgia?

Beloved fashion brand whose Oxford Circus store closed in 2021 prepares to hold its first catwalk show in seven years

London fashion week begins in mid-September but showgoers will be starting early this season, with Topshop’s first return to the catwalk in seven years taking place next weekend. Open to the public and likely to feature the campaign star Cara Delevingne, it’s the latest evidence to confirm that the beloved high street brand is back.

Topshop, once a rite of passage for young women finding their style on the high street, was bought by Asos in 2021 when its parent company, Philip Green’s Arcadia, went into administration. But its flagship store, the 90,000-sq-ft (8,400 sq metres) shopping destination at Oxford Circus in central London, closed later that year and the brand’s relevance diminished. The Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, who bought a 75% stake in the company last year, is hoping to change that.