Top Shop (© Britta Jaschinski)
With one eye on pricing and the other on the catwalk, London's high street shops have never offered such good value-for-money fashion as they do now
Top Shop (© Britta Jaschinski)
Bookshops | Fashion boutiques | Department stores | Erotica and Lingerie Gifts | Health & beauty | High street | Interiors | Jewellery | Menswear | Shoes Specialist | Sports & Technology | Vintage fashion | Shopping Awards 2008
Topshop
Here at London’s sartorial mecca, first-time visitors can usually be spotted squealing with delight. The overwhelming choice of trend-led high-street fashion is right on the
money, but for something a bit special go to The Boutique. There you’ll
find collaborations with cutting-edge designers like Christopher Kane,
Emma Cook and Jonathan Saunders.
Best buy Monet fluoro-print prom dress £50.
216 Oxford St, W1 (020 7636 7700/www.topshop.co.uk) Oxford Circus tube.
Topman
Under the watchful eye of design director Gordon Richardson, Topman
manages to provide casual basics for the nation’s youths, as well as
keeping London fashionistas happy. Sponsoring the MAN menswear catwalk
event at London Fashion Week provides much needed support for new designers.
Best buy Red checked shirt £28.
214 Oxford St, W1 (020 7636 7700/www.topman.com) Oxford Circus tube.
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Uniqlo
Last year London fell back in love with Uniqlo. Cleverly rebranded with
indie celeb envoys, a Terry Richardson ad campaign, Nicola Formichetti
and Katie Grand creating imagery and two new stores on Oxford Street
(311 is the European flagship), there was good reason to return to
this Japanese supermarket of cool. A recent gallery project with
photographer Matt Irwin and the ongoing UT T-shirt project have kept up
the momentum, but it’s the cut-price pure cashmere and achingly simple
selvedge jeans that delight.
Best buy Polka-dot socks £2.99.
311 Oxford St, W1 (020 7290 7701/www.uniqlo.co.uk) Oxford Circus tube.
H&M
This is the low-price retailer that attracted superdesigners Karl
Lagerfeld, Viktor & Rolf and, um, Madonna and Kylie to create
in-house diffusion lines, flipping a middle finger to its high-street
competitors in the process. Look out for its online ’zine with
contributions from style-mag royalty Corinne Day and Karl Plewka.
Best buy Stripy shorts £14.99.
261-271 Regent St, W1 (020 7439 4004/www.hm.com) Oxford Circus tube.
Gap
With sheer merino pieces, well-priced cashmere, a new slim-fit trouser
and the best khakis in town, Gap still occupies a vast stretch of the
high street. With a whisper of Phoebe Philo consulting on design, Gap
looks set to stay firmly on our shopping lists.
Best buy Women’s skinny jeans £19.99.
Gap, 376-384 Oxford St, W1 (020 7408 4500/www.gap.com) Bond St tube.
Banana Republic
The 17,000-sq ft store on Regent Street covers two vast floors. Down in
the basement, men are well catered for with a sea of neatly stacked
fine-knit V-necks, military shirts, neutral-toned cords and
quintessential chinos. Womenswear up on the ground floor includes
classic wardrobe staples and chic accessories.
Best buy One-shouldered dress in fuchsia £95.
224 Regent St, W1 (020 7758 3550/ www.bananarepublic.eu) Oxford Circus tube.
Primark
London’s new-found obsession with Primark began with the hallowed
opening of its 70,000sq ft Oxford St store in April 2007. The shopping
experience itself is somewhat chequered (with changing-room queues so
long customers often strip off on the shop floor) but it’s the
fashionable cheap-as-chips clothes you go for, not the genteel
ambience.
Best buy Organic cotton T-shirt £4.
499-517 Oxford St, W1 (020 7495 0420/www.primark.co.uk) Marble Arch tube.
Bookshops | Fashion boutiques | Department stores | Erotica and Lingerie Gifts | Health & beauty | High street | Interiors | Jewellery | Menswear | Shoes Specialist | Sports & Technology | Vintage fashion | Shopping Awards 2008
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4 comments
Cant understand how primark and H&M are there and there's no Zara. Zara is soooo much better for High St fashion than either of those two...
Lets face it with the 'fair trade clothing sceme' - it's not going to work. Unless the British public want to pay more for their clothes, and the majority don't, there's no way it can successfully work (unless the goverment wants to tax less, but lets be serious now). Besides, the workers on Blood, Sweat & Tshirts need a job at the end of the day, and if we stop buying clothing they'll just starve.
Let's remember that Primark is one of the most unethical brands around. Why buy something 'cheap as chips' that has been made in awful conditions by labourers, as seen in 'Blood, Sweat & T-Shirts' on BBC3?
I think French Connection deserves a mention here! Certainly one of my all time favourites. This season the little drape style dresses are gorge!