This week sees Topshop New York finally away from the starting blocks in the latest episode of Brits intent on making a splash in the Big Apple.

Judging from the pre-launch hype and the amount of noise that has been generated by the opening (finally) of this 40-something thousand sq ft fast fashion temple, visitors who are around for the event should be in for a treat.

It is also likely that this store, which has emerged from London design house Dalziel+Pow, will have graphics and gizmos that will have the fashion press all of a flutter. There will be parties, there will be a local media blitz and there will (probably) be recession-bucking sales. The question that has to be asked, in the present climate more than ever, is whether this will continue once the fashion editors have returned (briefly) to their desks.

If past performance is any indication of future trends, it will not. New York has consistently proved itself one of the toughest places on the planet in which to set up shop and then to maintain an appropriate level of business…if you are not from the US. The old adage that “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere” must rarely have been truer, even if it was originally coined by solipsistic New Yorkers.

And yet…Topshop might be the Brit that proves the exception to the rule.

It is the case that large, cross-border outfits such as Zara and H&M have succeeded in the city, but try thinking of UK retailers, excepting Ted Baker, that have thrived. It’s difficult, largely because there are almost none that have done so on a meaningful scale. The difference with Topshop is that it will boast a store design that is likely to be of the moment and have ticket prices that will appeal to a cash-strapped city in search of a fashion fix.

Comparisons will almost inevitably be made with fashion central, aka Topshop Oxford Circus, and with luck and a fair wind, they will be favourable. The thing that Sir Philip Green and those charged with making this work will have to be wary about will be the inevitable clamour that will follow about where the next US Topshop will be located.

For the moment at least, however, this will be the biggest and most widely covered fashion store to open in New York this year and we should all be grateful that Britain is flying the flag. And it will certainly be more successful than that Scotsman’s attempt to convince the G20 that he is the world’s fiscal saviour when he visited the city last week.