Topshop, the unthinkable shipwreck of the British fashion liner

Parmi les images qui restent, celle-ci : le magasin Topshop pris d’assaut par les rédactrices de mode de passage à la Fashion Week de Londres. À l’atmosphère froide et pincée des boutiques de luxe de Bond Street, elles préfèrent un son pop bien anglais lancé pleine balle dans les allées interminables de l’empire du vêtement britannique. A l'époque, Topshop règne en maître de la fast fashion branchée avec son vaisseau amiral planté sur Oxford Street. On vient ici en pèlerinage, respirer le cool londonien, acheter un jean slim, une culotte aux couleurs vitaminées (l’enseigne en a vendu jusqu’à 30 par minute au meilleur de sa forme) ou une minirobe imprimée signée Kate Moss, icône de mode des années 2000.

But now, the craze has faded."Vasouillarde" for several years for having partially missed the check in the digital strategy in the face of voracious competitors like Boohoo or PrettyLittlething, the clothing brand saw its fall precipitated by the COVVI crisis.The group to which it belongs (Arcadia) on the verge of bankruptcy, plans to open the talks to be sold to Asos, a new ready-to-wear-online, also British.

If this takeover announced in early February 2021 saves the name of the brand and the remaining stocks, the outcome remains less lucky for the 70 shops of this mastodon of the Lycra clothing, called to close, as well as the 2,500 jobs that depend on it, all threatened.

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From the king of fashion to the "unacceptable face of capitalism"

In this gloomy context, the looks are sprayed towards Philip Green, the pattern of Topshop.Because if England points to a colossal social breakage and predicts with this takeover - by the voice of the Guardian - the end of the shopping trips in the "hard" shops, at the same time, the country is fascinated for the fall of the controversial billionaire, FAST FASHION MAGNAT in Great Britain.The BBC recalls that the 68 -year -old businessman has gone from the "low -cost fashion king" to the "unacceptable face of capitalism" denounced by a group of parliamentarians in 2016.

The story of Philip Green has something to feed the columns.It began in the 1970s, a period when this self-made-man launched himself into business.He is 23 years old when he begins to import jeans from the Middle East.For several decades, he refines the strings of the business.In 1999, he saw his career taking off by buying the British Home Stores store chain (BHS), then two years later, the Arcadia group.

At 50, he became the powerful boss of the emblematic brands of British fast fashion, and soon transforms Topshop into a Mecca of style with the help of stylist Jane Shepherdson.The entrepreneur is designated as that which "has democratized the style" and "changed the way we buy and carries fashion", according to the Telegraph.The green recipe: offer an inexpensive fashion adapted to the tastes of the moment, renewed at full speed with models inspired by podiums.From teenager to the forties, clients ask for more.Celebrities are not to be outdone.Among them, we find Alexa Chung, Laura Carmichael (the Lady Edith of the Downton Abbey series) or the Sisters Delevingne.

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Kate Moss, the good deal

In 2005, the turn was taken when Philip Green succeeded in hiring Kate Moss after having met her at a charity gala.He obtained a model then untouchable that she draws an exclusive collection for Topshop.The first launch, in May 2007, triggered collective hysteria scenes on Oxford Street where the TOP is a micro-appearance of twenty seconds.The deal is a winner and will repeat itself several times until 2014.He also tried himself with Beyoncé, another inaccessible icon.While glory is at its peak, the golden image of the billionaire is darkening, in particular with the shattering departure of Jane Shepherdson - after the arrival of Kate Moss.Later, with the advent of the wave Me Too, the stylist will claim to have been harassed by her boss.

Philip Green drags a reputation as an impulsive and angry man, but who does not slow down his dizzying ascent.In 2006, the businessman was ennobled by the Queen.Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair has his career for example, evoking "a dream come true".The Topshop parade is one of the most anticipated in London Fashion Week.We come across the fashion intelligentsia, including Anna Wintour, dreaded patron of the American vogue and Natalie Massenet, president of the British Fashion Council.We also lend him memorable evenings on his yacht in Monaco or in the Maldives, in the presence, among others, of George Michael and Jennifer Lopez.

Accusations of racism and sexual harassment

The decline begins in 2016.Kate Moss is no longer the guarantee to sell stocks, Beyoncé left to see elsewhere with her Ivy Park collection, and opposite, the competition takes up more and more space.She was able to find her audience with the Z generation, a young native, ultra-key clientele, nourished by the culture of influencers, and torn between her ecological ideals and her rapid fashion dependence that she buys from her smartphone.Expectations badly surrounded by the magnate which refused to invest online to retaliate.

At the same time, he resells his BHS stores on the verge of bankruptcy, for 1 symbolic sterling book, in 2015.The following year, the group went bankrupt, causing the abolition of 11.000 jobs.The discontent rises on the side of parliamentarians, it is a question that the queen withdraws her title (a first), but the billionaire saves him for the payment of 363 million pounds in the BHS pension pension fund.He is also accused of having made a financial editing allowing him to escape the English tax by making his wife touch, Tina, Monegasque resident, all of the dividends.

In 2018, Philip Green faces accusations of racism and sexual harassment on the part of several employees as well as a professor of Pilate in the United States, accusations which he denies.The fall continues in 2019 with the debts of the Arcadia group which accumulate.If Asos has confirmed its acquisition of the Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and Hit brands, the e-commerce platform does not intend to resume stores, thus endangering the majority of the 13.000 Arcadia employees.And their pension fund.The staff ask Green to fill the hole estimated at 350 million pounds sterling.But for the time being, the request has remained a dead letter, as if the boss of the Almighty ship had vanished, leaving the shipwrecked left to themselves.

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