'We missed you too': Topshop's Yorkshire history as it launches summer collection at John Lewis Leeds
Topshop has returned to the high street at John Lewis – and Leeds is a top-performing store. Yorkshire Post Fashion Editor Stephanie Smith, a veteran Topshop fan, explores the brand’s Yorkshire roots and showcases its new style icons.
Topshop has always been more than a fashion store. For generations of teenage girls, before millennials and Gen Z, stepping through its doors was a rite of passage that sparked a lifelong style and shopping obsession. Topshop was a place where every girl could be That Girl.
The closure of its stores in 2020 was mourned across the UK by women of all ages who had experienced that special Topshop frisson as they stood amid its mannequins and clothing rails, its music, lights and chatter, and pondered what to try on first.
Purchases might not always have been successful - I don’t know why I bought that black PVC raincoat - but many still cherish and wear the Topshop pieces bought decades ago. Vintage Topshop is gold.
A couple of years ago – joy – rumours of Topshop’s return to the UK high street began to circulate, and last year it posted a message on social media: “We Missed You Too”.
Then, last August, Topshop hosted its first catwalk show for seven years in Trafalgar Square.
And now we can shop at Topshop once again, in real life, because in February this year, the brand opened in 32 John Lewis stores - including the Leeds store at Victoria Gate - with Topman available in six stores.
A visit to the Topshop space at John Lewis Leeds reveals cool denim styles, easy linen staples and some statement pieces (witness the khaki ruched drawcord maxi dress).
John Lewis says that four of its five top performing stores for Topshop are in the North of England: Cheadle, Liverpool, Leeds and Trafford, and the bestselling product in the Leeds store as of April was a straight maxi skirt in brown.
“I grew up with these incredible brands,” said Peter Ruis, managing director of John Lewis, of Topshop and Topman. “They have defined our high streets, bringing edge and accessibility with an iconic British lens.”
We like to claim pretty much everything is from Yorkshire, but when it comes to Topshop, it is true. It was founded in Sheffield in 1964 in the basement of the Peter Robinson department store, which had opened two years earlier on Castle Square.
Created for a growing army fashion-aware teens, The Top Shop, as it was then, soon made its way into the historic Peter Robinson store at Oxford Circus in London.
Peter Robinson was himself a Yorkshireman, born in 1804 at Womersley, near Selby. The son of a farmer, he opened a drapery business at 214 Oxford Street, beside Oxford Circus, in 1833 and bought up neighbouring shops to establish a department store in 1850. Ironically, John Lewis worked there and was offered a partnership in 1864 but chose to open his own drapery on Oxford Street instead.
Peter Robinson was bought by Montague Burton in 1946. In swinging 1964, with The Beatles riding high, buyer Diane Wadey introduced The Top Shop to the Peter Robinson stores in Sheffield and London, bringing what The Times described as high fashion for the "young and different generation", offering brands such as Mary Quant and Stirling Cooper, joined by Jeff Banks, French Connection and Radley Cooper.
In 1973 Top Shop split from Peter Robinson and by 1976, had 55 standalone branches. In 1978, Topman launched - with its first store in Leeds - targeting the men's fashion market amid declining sales of tailoring.
In the 1980s, Topshop felt the pressure of the burgeoning, mass market, value retailers, but rallied, and in 1994, its new flagship store - Big Topshop - opened at the Oxford Circus site, with three floors, a DJ booth, nail bar and food and drink stalls. The atmosphere - as many still recall - was electric.
Jane Shepherdson, who had joined Topshop in the mid-1980s, rising to become brand director in the late 1990s, was credited with reviving the brand for a new generation, and pioneering online fashion.
By then, in 1997, the Burton group had restructured into the Arcadia Group, which was bought by Philip Green in 2002. Topshop grew to 500 shops worldwide, with 300 in the UK.
In 2007, Kate Moss launched her first collection of vintage-inspired dresses and tailored clothing, attracting huge queues. It sold out quickly.
Topshop also became a big name in denim, its jeggings and skinny Jamie and Joni jeans achieving cult status in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Philip Green sold a stake in Topshop and Topman in 2012. The high street was declining thanks to online shopping. The collapse of Arcadia Group in 2020 led to the closure of its standalone UK stores.
ASOS acquired the Topshop and Topman brands (not the stores) out of administration and, in 2024, announced that it sold a 75 per cent stake of them to Danish company Bestseller.
Now Topshop is back on the UK high street at John Lewis. Michelle Wilson, managing director at Topshop, said: “From our cult denim to new‑season footwear, you can see it, feel it and take it home the same day.”
Topshop has just launched its summer collection, partnering with British Vogue on a swish Notting Hill launch with a range that includes a floral blouson halterneck maxi dress, a folded organza maxi dress in abstract blur print, an ecru bubble hem set and the Milo fringe grab bag.
Topshop’s high street return might well pave the way for more bricks and mortar fashion as brands revisit the experiential benefits of shopping in-person as opposed to 2D online convenience.
Meanwhile, it is high time to discover more Topshop pieces to treasure for ever.
Topshop is at John Lewis Leeds.