Top of the shops

Here is the news that every female with an interest in fashion has been waiting a long time to hear: Topshop is coming to New Zealand.

To Takapuna to be exact, on the top floor of The Department Store. Cue hand claps, squeals of excitement and maybe even some swoony fainting.

Topshop in The Department Store will open mid-April, and will feature a carefully selected range of mainline styles, including bags and shoes. From May the store will sell the premium Boutique line and popular Kate Moss for Topshop collection, and from September clothes and shoes from the Unique range will be in store.

Stock for these collaborative collections will arrive at the same time that they are available in London, and prices will be similar to those New Zealanders pay for Topshop when ordering online from their website - except now you can try everything on for size before buying.

This is a massive coup for The Department Store, which was recently named as the best new retail destination in the world by British magazine Monocle.

This international reputation - no doubt helped by the involvement of designer Karen Walker - helped the store figure on Topshop's fashion radar. The British chainstore and fast fashion giant handpicks destinations the brand is sold into, and approached The Department Store direct to form this exclusive New Zealand partnership.

Rachel Proud, Topshop senior buyer, has described the store as a "premium destination" for the brand, which will sit alongside international and local fashion brands like Karen Walker, Stolen Girlfriends Club, Lonely by Lonely Hearts and Ksubi, as well as Simon James Design, the Marr Lab, Lucy & the Powder Room, and Stephen Marr also on the top floor.

Overseas, Topshop has formed similar retail partnerships with top boutiques including New York's Opening Ceremony and Paris' Colette. The store within The Department Store is only the second for Topshop retail in Australasia, following on from their introduction into the boutique Incu in Sydney last year.

Karen Walker, who recently returned with husband Mikhail Gherman from a Topshop buying trip where they selected pieces that will be available when the store opens, says it is a huge nod from the world's largest leading retail innovator.

"It's a wonderful compliment that the very first Topshop in New Zealand is going to be at The Department Store.

"This is great, but from a practical point of view it also adds to the richness of the offering in the store. At the moment we're stocking almost 100 different brands across all three floors over the fashion, beauty and interior design areas, and adding Topshop and all its different facets is a wonderful addition to the experience we're already offering.

"At The Department Store we want to continuously offer new and exciting things, and the fact that Topshop create 300 new designs each week means we can have continuous change on the floor," explains Walker, who opened The Department Store last year with Stephen Marr and Dan Gosling of Black Box Boutique.

"It also means we can order a small amount of a lot of different styles, so when you buy something from Topshop at The Department Store, you're unlikely to bump into a bunch of different people wearing the same thing."

Topshop has changed the face of fashion since opening in 1964, both in terms of fast fashion and the wider fashion scene in general. We've all heard of the high-low balance - teaming expensive designer clothes with something picked up at a cheap and cheerful chain store. Topshop is usually the "low" option of choice for style icons like Alexa Chung, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chloe Sevigny.

Topshop also helped popularise the idea of designer collaborations, working with some of fashion's best talent including Celia Birtwell, Biba's Barbara Hulanicki and Christopher Kane, and were the first high street retailer to show on schedule at London Fashion Week with the in-house design collection Unique - a brand Walker describes as being one of the most exciting brands showing at London Fashion Week.

"Topshop have their finger on the button ahead of everyone else because they're continuously innovating," she explains.

"Not only are they innovators in retail, but also an innovating force in fashion design."