Making sense of the past seven days
Hats off to Stuart Rose and Philip Green for the fantastic photoshoot they participated in to promote next month's Oxford Street Festival. The snaps of the old adversaries together - surely the first since last year's epic clash for control of Marks & Spencer - appeared in most newspapers yesterday, providing plenty of fun for the commentators. More importantly, the stunt guaranteed coverage of the efforts being made to revive London's West End in the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks.

You could argue that the fact the pair were willing to appear together at all shows how God-awful trading conditions are in central London just now. But it is testament to both that they were willing to forget their differences and come together for the good of their businesses and the retail sector generally. It sounds as if the Oxford Street bash is lining up to be a great event. Any store groups on the street that have not pledged their support should do so now.

Simon Wolfson, the youthful Next boss, gave a pretty gloomy diagnosis on the retail outlook yesterday when we met at the company's interim results presentation.

But despite the uncertain prospects, he was on surprisingly chipper form. There's little he can do to ease the pressure on hard-pressed consumers - he doesn't set their tax rates, or supply their ever-more costly fuel.

In the context of the consumer downturn, though, he can make sure Next is working as well as possible. He is confident of the business model and is doing all he can to improve it to ensure that Next continues to take its share of fashion spend.

Wolfson told me that he doesn't see an end any time soon to the tough trading conditions that have beset retailers. 'It will be difficult for at least another six months - and we're not expecting a sudden bounce in six months' time,' he confided.

So the emphasis is on continuing what Next has always done - offering customers great clothing and refusing to sacrifice margin by ensuring that quality is reflected in the prices the retailer is able to charge. As long as there is a perceptible quality difference, Wolfson reasons, Next can hold its own against the rising value chains such as Primark.

Conscious that its reputation for quality and style is at the core of Next's success, Wolfson is upping the fashion ante. At present, new design womenswear collections make their debuts in Next every 12 weeks. In the near future - certainly by next Spring - expect to see looks refreshed in half that time.

It would be wrong to pretend everything is rosy in the garden. After all, comparable sales were down 2.9 per cent over the half-year in shops not affected by new openings. In the six weeks to September 10, the decline was far worse at 6 per cent.

But bad news as that may be for Next, the thought of how some of Wolfson's harder-pressed rivals may be faring is really chilling.