TOPSHOP- THE LEADER OF THE HIGHSTREET

“TOPSHOP is delighted to announce it has won the Lorraine High Street Fashion Award for Best Trendsetter for the 2^nd year running. The award which is voted for by the daily ITV1 show’s viewers cements TOPSHOP's presence as the high street leader.”

It is clear that Topshop is the leader of the high street, but why? What exactly are they doing right?

In my opinion it all leads back to brand clarity! A trait that Topshop has adapted and successfully understood. They know their consumer and provide for them at all times. They are well aware that the majority of their buyers are between the age of 16-30 but also older women, providing sophisticated office clothing. Not only do their clothes successfully reflect the consumer but so do their carefully picked staff. Most (maybe even all) Topshop staff are confident in their style and fashion picks, providing inspiration for the buyer in store and someone the customer can relate to as they are within the same age bracket.

Brand clarity provides the consumer with a story to believe in, a brand to trust and most importantly it creates a loyal relationship between the buyer and the brand. However, in this digital age, having successful online activity is as important as having brand clarity. Topshop’s Pinterest  is great, providing their “fashionable consumers” with inspiration, an insight on their future collections but also a chance to get involved with their street style. A technique that is required if a brand wishes to involve the buyer and make them feel part of a team or a community, assuring that these customers will buy and advertise the next collection. This idea of a community is also reflected in their Facebook page as they tell the reader that they “cant wait for [them] to join in the style conversations”.

YouTubers and Bloggers are the kings and queens of the digital age, Topshop has shown extreme awareness to that as they work with “Zoella”, “SunBeamsJess”, “PrettySickly” and many others. Celebrity endorsement is all good but having Bloggers gives the consumer a more relatable advertisement. These people aren’t as distant as Ellie Goulding or Alexa Chung who yes, do provide a strong advertisement but in my opinion, not as strong as Bloggers.  All this online activity has paid off, as Topshop now has the fastest-growing social media page of any other brand worldwide.

Topshop know that they are the leaders and use that to get the best collaborations possible. My personal favorite was their Adidas collaboration last summer. What a better way to follow the high end trend of sportswear than to work with one of the most successful sportwear brands worldwide and let them do the job for you?! The same with their ongoing collaboration with Cara Delavigne and Kate Moss, just by looking at their names, it automatically creates connotations of high end fashion, great style and iconic women; sugar coating their clothes.

 Topshop does not only provide great affordable fashion but is also aware of the social platforms consumers use and the traits they seek for in a brand. They are doing everything they should in terms of advertisement and communication with the audience, and that is successfully portrayed in their millions of followers and celebrity endorsements.  NEWGEN has proven to be a great way of always releasing seasonal collections, keeping is new and fresh, exactly what fashion conscious consumers want.

COLOUR TREND 2014/2015

Each year there is a key trend in fashion that most designers follow and allow it to dominate their collections. Autumn/Winter 2013 was focused on grunge, dark colours(mainly monochrome), leather and tartan. However, this year things have changed, which is only expected by the fast paced fashion industry! Continuing the theme of monochrome and darkness most designers have added blue to their colour palette; making it either the dominant colour or the element  needed in order to blend white and black together in a more interested, colour blocking style.

Topshop, Emilia Wickstead, David Koma, Eudon Choi and Alexander McQueen are a few of the 2014/15 designers that represent the trend completely. I won’t go into detail about all of them as I don’t want to bore you but I will comment on Topshop and Emilia Wickstead as they were my favorites.

Emilia Wickstead applied this trend to her SS14 collection. This collection is gorgeous; the clothes are structured, quite futuristic and alienated but also clean looking. The black and white outlines give the clothes a colour blocking style and a costume like element (something you would see an alien princess wear hahah)

She also reflected the trend in her AW14/15 collection but in a more subtle way, not allowing it to dominate the entire collection but simply allowing it to have a small appearance. She went from the royal blue to a much more lighter shade. 

Topshop on the other hand, did the complete opposite. They gave us a taste of this colour combination in their SS14 collection and then allowed it to dominate in their AW14/15 clothes.

Topshop’s collection is not as futuristic as Emilia’s but still has the colour blocking style along with the sharp A line skirts and defined waist line. Topshop also used less white and more grey, but that is probably because this is a winter collection and white is quite bright and conventionally more appropriate for summer weather.  Its a comfy collection, all the outfits look extremely warm and complex which is interesting due to the limited and quite cold colour palette(personally, I don’t find blue a warm colour instead I think of a cold ocean when I see it).

I always get excited when there is a new trend out but after a while it gets boring because I see it so often! It goes from dominating all Fashion Weeks to then getting filtered down to high street brands meaning that every single shop will be selling extremely similar clothes. Nevertheless, this trend is one that I enjoyed looking through and hopefully i won’t get bored of it quickly! 

UPDATE

This week is the first official week of my course at Trent University, I have chosen to take Fashion Communication and Promotion and up till now i have not regretted my decision one bit. 

The opportunities provided by this course are endless, it is especially great for those who are looking to take on Styling, Visual Merchandising, PR, Journalism, Marketing or anything to do with the fashion industry in general! Even though I cannot talk about the course in much detail as it is only the beginning, i am looking forward to understanding this exciting, fast paced and for sure competitive industry in much more depth!

So far my blog has been extremely simple, several OOTD’s and one complaint about Directions Dye(which btw i am still annoyed about). But that is all about to change! I will still be posting OOTD’s because they are my favourite to look at (and a very helpful reminder of my clothes when not knowing what to wear in the mornings) but as an addition i will be posting my research, analysis of certain trends /collections but also the interesting knowledge i gain throughout my course. 

But one thing i do want to mention in this blog post is that since starting my course i have been inspired by so many people, their own individual styles and outfits. It has really made me think about our generation and the power of technology and advertisement.  We all buy from the same brands, search the same videos, listen to the same music and idolise the same people. It’s mind-blowing to think that the second I’m on Topshop about to order a dress, hundreds maybe even thousand of girls are about to click the same “add to bag” icon at the exact same time as me.   

So, the question is: Why do we like the same clothes? Is it because we truly enjoy the way it looks on us or simply because we are manipulated by advertisement and the media? The idea of wanting to ‘fit’ in... Think about Chanel. Luxurious, elegant and most importantly classic. The idea that by buying a simple bag worth thousands of pounds we will immediately rise within the social scale, get hundred of likes on Instagram and most importantly own something a limited amount of the population can access. It’s rewarding... but why?!

The irony is that even after understanding that i am being manipulated by these ‘admirable’ and ‘highly successful’ brands, I will still go back and buy what i have been made to believe is the right thing to purchase, simply because it IS Topshop, it IS Vivienne Westwood and Rihanna DID design the collection making it 10 times better, but is it really worth my consumerism?

That's just something to think about and to be honest i am yet to come up with the correct answer, i guess we all rely on fashion and our appearance for different reasons. Whether that's personal, so for a boost in confidence and as a way of visually expressing our personality/mood; or professional, maybe you are expected to look a certain way in the working environment you are in!