This is quite a new adventure for me — Loren urged me to post to her blog though — to help prepare me to enter the blogosphere (which will be happening real soon).

So to answer the question why all interest and our mission to put the magnifying glass on Top Shop. There is something going on here that we need to understand to be on top of our game. In a time where fashion and apparel merchandizing are hurting and contracting—Top Shop is booming. Top Shop and Zara are killing it while others are sucking wind. The fashion industry is a bit stale and constipated.

Top Shop is a store and concept that is fresh and hot! You cannot argue with their numbers and they are able to create a feeding or shopping frenzy like I have never
seen before. It is a new paradigm. Phillip Green is a genius with a phenomenon creating a pre-concert type of pandemonium where people camp out in front of the store to be the first in line similar to getting concert tickets. The store is filled with stylish, hip, fashion concious young shoppers. Phillip Green seems to create his own
designs and line or brand that is in vogue and style but at a fraction of the cost. The displays are insane. Everyone gets a personal shopper. He does not over produce the collection but puts enough out to create demand and produce significant sales! He sells out of a line and creats a new released collection in the same season. He replaces brands and designers with top models ( like Kate Moss etc.) and fashion icons to create merchandizing appeal but it doesn’t reflect in the cost. It works!— what ever he does! It is worth checking out. The electricity is a new fashion and apparel
merchandising phenomenon worth studying. In the process you find
yourself joining in the pandomonium and risking the same insane addiction.

Congratulations Phillip Green and Top Shop. I love paradigm shifters who reinvent the model!

JR Ridinger