Topman’s Oxford Circus flagship store is a new standard bearer for Sir Philip Green’s menswear chain. John Ryan takes a tour with him

There are few higher profile retail locations in the UK than the flagship Topshop store at Oxford Circus. But its menswear brand Topman’s presence there has tended to live in the shadow of its big sister.

That’s a state of affairs which is likely to change with the bold refurbishment and expansion of the Topman space, which puts it on a par with the womenswear floors below. Owner Sir Philip Green, who took time out last week to walk Retail Week around the store, is keen to show it off. “This is probably, pound for pound, one of the best stores in the world, in this market,” he says.

The stats are certainly worth making a noise about. At 24,000 sq ft, the store is double its previous size, and has used the services of Dalziel + Pow, the design consultancy that worked on the New York store earlier this year.

The word “store” is used advisedly in this context, as this Topman is part of a larger entity – sharing a common entrance with Topshop, and in its new enlarged form occupying about a quarter of the total retail space in this location. However, ride the escalator to the first floor and there is a strong sense of entering a different proposition altogether.

This is probably deliberate, although given the propensity of couples and male/female groups to go shopping together, there is an inevitable crossover. What is clear is that the world’s largest Topman may be smaller than its sister downstairs, but is a highly credible offer in its own right.

Topman brand director David Shepherd is the man who has overseen the expansion and revamping of the store and is understandably enthusiastic.

The two floors are divided by wearing occasion, with the lower floor devoted to denim and casualwear, while up the escalator the entire level is about tailoring and more structured garments. Standing on the upper floor, Shepherd says: “This used to be the Wallis [another Arcadia brand] buying offices.”
He points at the escalator well and continues: “The big work we’ve done here is to cut that out and drop an escalator in, cut a staircase at the back of the floor and we’ve done it in 12 weeks.”

Shepherd makes much of the work done by shopfitter Patton Fit-Out, saying that the great bulk of things have been delivered on time and on budget. “We’ve worked all over the summer and everything has been changed – the electrics, air conditioning, lighting – we’ve replaced everything and redesigned the store,” says Shepherd. He adds that Topman, which represents “double-digit turnover for the brand”, continued to trade throughout the refurbishment – a feat achieved by moving departments around and working overnight shifts.

View from the top

Perhaps the most striking thing about the tailored floor is the wow factor provided by an atrium in its middle. Green says that finding the atrium, which was concealed by a suspended ceiling, was something of a surprise: “I’m not even sure if we knew it was there,” he says. Whatever the case, the vast empty space that sits above the mid-shop has a tent-like structure at its top, strung across a metal gantry to which bright purple lights are attached. Along with the listed art deco (presumably, nobody seems entirely sure) windows, what has been stumbled upon in the conversion from buying office to retail space is a feature that provides real drama for the entire floor.

However, there is rather more to the way the new space appears than just the serendipitous discovery of a hidden atrium. Topman and Dalziel + Pow have clearly worked hard to bring some of the design elements first seen in the New York store back to the home country.

Practically, this means the red room on the lower floor, for instance, which was used to house new design talent in the Broadway store, has been imported, but its end use has been changed with the space, being used to illustrate current trends using own-buy merchandise.

Shepherd begins to reel off the changes: “Stock-wise, we’ve got probably a third more Topman stock, and then we’ve put in an Office shoe shop. We’ve got a barber shop, we’ve got a bigger stylist lounge and then part of the brief was to get the new up and coming designers.”

He continues: “So what we’ve got here are some of the new Swedish and Scandinavian brands. We’ve got Subi jeans from Australia, Paige Denim from LA, we’ve even got a range called Lens where designers design for us and we manufacture. It’s a collaboration that we’ve been doing for about four seasons now.”

Shepherd says that the branded concession presence in the store accounts for about 25%, with the balance being own-buy. He points out that in New York it was more or less 100% own-buy.

All of which requires an appropriate in-store environment. It would be difficult to view either of the two floors as a contiguous whole – each has been carefully portioned up to allow views across the space, but to also foster the sense of shops within shops.

Design aspirations

On the upper floor, the area directly beneath the atrium is distinctive by virtue of the equipment height. This is the new designer area, consisting of a series of rails on white plinths with forward-hung merchandise. On the top of each unit is a white sign, informing shoppers which designer’s collection it holds. Although it is clear each of the rails has a different collection on it, the white plastic signs used are all of one type. It’s a bit like the John Lewis approach to selling brands, albeit with rather more attitude.

Elsewhere on this floor, the staircase at the back is certainly noteworthy. This is a dark area, lit by a mesh of fluorescent tubes on the ceiling and with Day-Glo electric guitars and pictures of young person’s popular beat combos attached to the walls (Shepherd says that indie favourites Kings of Leon view Topman as a must-visit destination when in London).

Follow the stairs down to the lower level and you are confronted by a glass case filled with footwear and, next to this, a neon sign saying “Up to Footwear”. It is obvious stuff, but better for it, as it would be easy to lose your way in this feast of fashion and visual plenty.

The graphics throughout are arresting, whether applied to the walls, or as free-standing light boxes arranged at quirky angles. The use of glass with translucent plasticised transfers is also a feature used extensively across the two floors – a means of closing down the space, while retaining a measure of sight.

Is this the way forward for the brand? Green says: “It is strong. It is a statement. There’s always things you’d do marginally differently, but there are things that you adjust over a two or three-week opening. You have to get a feel for it. It’s about playing to our strengths. If we’re building a global business, what better to showcase it than this?”

Green seems happy and as he points out, stand on the upper level of the new and improved Topman and you don’t feel as if you’re on the second floor of a multi-level store. You could be on the ground floor; such is the pace that is generated.

“We’re backing our judgement, we’re not scared,” he says. “We’ve got something that people believe in, it’s got credibility. This is very, very strong.” The next stores to receive elements of the treatment will be the new Eldon Square store in Newcastle and a branch in Cork. Male shoppers in both cities should feel excited.

Topman, Oxford Circus

Location First and second floors – above Topshop

Size 24,000 sq ft

Design Dalziel + Pow and in-house

Features New York store influences, light-box graphics, art deco atrium, range of new in-store services

Shopfitting Patton Fit-Out