The rebirth of Topshop

Millennials recently went into a frenzy after some mysterious Instagram posts from Topshop hinted at the possible revival of a physical store. The cryptic posts read: ‘we’ve been listening’ and ‘we missed you too’. Last year Scandinavian group, ASOS, sold a 75% stake in Topshop and Topman to Danish firm, Heartland. Last month Topshop.com relaunched a standalone website that still just has a holding page saying ‘coming soon’.

The brand later revealed that the posts were not in fact about the opening of a new store, but instead were teasing an interactive art installation, designed in partnership with artist Russ Jones, and a treasure hunt around Soho in which people could win a £1000 Topshop voucher. However, ASOS CEO José Antonio Ramos Calamonte has still not ruled out the return of a bricks-and-mortar store and industry rumours are suggesting that Topshop is even scoping out potential sites including Carnaby Street.

The demise of Topshop’s physical stores five years ago was due to a mix of the Sir Philip Green scandal and the brand failing to adapt to the digital landscape. The arrival of e-tailers such as Boohoo, Shein and Pretty Little Thing meant Topshop was lagging behind. There was also further competition from new rivals like & Other Stories and Urban Outfitters, as well as established brands such as H&M and Zara. The Covid pandemic was the final straw.

Casting our minds back to Topshop’s flagship store at Oxford Circus, now soon to reopen as a long-awaited IKEA, it was a site of pilgrimage for almost every fashionable millennial from London or further afield – myself included! I fondly remember the live DJs, nail salon, piercing bar and more – the experiential offer was ahead of its time in many ways. The brand brought trend-led pieces to the high street at an accessible price point and was loved by supermodels and a generation of ‘it’ girls such as Cara Delevingne, Jourdan Dunn and Alexa Chung – and who can forget the iconic Kate Moss collaboration!

All the rumours of reopening have triggered a considerable amount of nostalgia. Just as we are now starting to see the revival of print magazines led by more niche independent titles like i-D due to a nostalgia-driven demand from Gen Z, will 2025 be the year we see the resurgence of physical retail on the high street fuelled by the reminiscence of millennials?

Thom Bettridge, the new editor-in-chief of i-D, says the narrative around the decline of print magazines is nonsense, “Print has been dying since the second I started working in print. I’m 10 years deep and it’s still here.” In the same way, physical retail has had its challenges over the years, particularly with the rise of e-commerce and the shift in consumer behaviour towards online shopping, but many believe it’s now in a much stronger place. Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, recently commented, “Physical retail is experiencing a remarkable resurgence as consumers increasingly seek out the tactile and social aspects of shopping. The high street is evolving, with retailers investing in innovative in-store experiences that complement their online offerings. This revival is a positive sign for the future of retail, indicating a balanced and dynamic shopping environment.”

This renaissance of bricks-and-mortar is not just about nostalgia though, it is a response to evolving consumer behaviour and a result of the unique value physical stores offer. As brands continue to develop their spaces to be more experiential and social media is increasingly influencing footfall into shops, things are certainly looking brighter for physical retail.

Data-driven analysis reveals an optimistic future, powered by strategic investment and a renewed focus on the customer experience. Shoppers are returning to the high street, also driven by companies requiring employees to come into the office more often. JLL’s latest European Retail Market Outlook 2025 report highlights that physical retail is not just surviving, but it is poised for a significant resurgence.

So, will Topshop bring back a physical store and if so, will it have the spirit and style of the ‘old’ Topshop as we knew it? Will leaning into millennial nostalgia be the key to future success, kick-starting the comeback of physical retail on the high street? If Topshop does return, it is not only millennials that they will need to target, but attracting Gen Z (and future generations) will also be critical to their success. If the brand does bring back a store (or several – one step at a time though!), I expect to see a lavish launch party with a DJ set from a cool ‘it’ girl! As Topshop is saying, ‘keep watching this space!’

The media landscape is different today than it was yesterday, with the pace of change getting ever quicker.

With more media outlets than ever, public access is at an all-time high – whether that be access to celebrities, politicians, celebrity politicians, business leaders or any public figure, intentional or not. Meanwhile, it is happening at a time when reputation has never been more important, seen in many ways as the most valuable commodity to any organisation in 2025.

Whether it’s the algorithms or Trump himself ripping up the rule book, these seismic shifts in media are a global phenomenon that are playing out on our doorstep in London.

CityAM has dropped its Monday and Friday editions; The Evening Standard is no-longer daily, replaced by the weekly London Standard; and TimeOut is now purely online.

But while The New Yorker has suggested London is now a local news desert, change is perhaps signalling local journalism is evolving but by no means dead. The arrival of London Centric, The Londoner and Lines to Take are just two examples of new London online news outlets from national journalists setting up on their own. The Times has launched a dedicated London edition, that far from avoiding London stories for ‘being too London’, instead aims to celebrate the London stories of interest to both Londoners and its visitors. A paper to reflect the international gateway city London has long been.

Beyond London, Tortoise Media’s buy-out of The Observer continues to make headlines with news of redundancies and long standing Observer commentators walking away (an insider at Tortoise tells me slow and steady wins the race!). And the recent united campaign across all UK national newspapers – Make IT FAIR–  was an attempt to tackle the government’s plans to water down the copyright laws as the intellectual property of journalists is increasingly tested by the rise of AI.

In broadcast we have seen the BBC introduce BBC Verify in an attempt to authenticate its content as a point of difference to its competitors – placing trust at the heart of what they do against growing scepticism around what is true and what is not in an age of ‘fake news’. Sky News, meanwhile, is championing quality as the future announcing plans to overhaul its programming and newsroom to create a model of premium paid content that it says will “safeguard its future from an existential threat to traditional TV brought about by the rise of YouTube and TikTok”.  This is a marked step-change against dwindling advertising revenues that puts faith in the idea users are willing to pay for quality.

In our very own trade press we’ve seen EG go under, nearly, only to resurrect (thankfully!) as Estates Gazette.  The news EG was closing was the moment many in the property industry took notice of how much change was going on in the news outlets that celebrate the sector and, crucially, hold it to account.  The rallying cry to support Estates Gazette demonstrated how we value the role of sector commentators.

As well as the need for new commercial measures to allow Estates Gazette to continue for another 200 years, the opportunity for Estates Gazette 2.0 is to harness the dynamism in the sector today that is a very different audience make-up to what it had when it was founded in 1858. We should be asking how we reflect this with relevant content to engage. Inspiration can be drawn from the growing consumer interest for the sector and titles such as Wallpaper* and Monocle increasingly focusing on the makeup of towns and cities, and a rise in property social media influencers. As well as producing highly engaging and visual content, these writers and content creators are responding to a rising consciousness around how buildings and developments impact the freedoms, community and health and safety of daily lives. While these outlets by no means compete with the role of Trade publications that play a very different role, they should encourage us all to think audience first – how do you get your news and what grabs your attention? Holding someone’s attention is a tall ask in 2025.

Changes in the media landscape was the focus for our first LCA Accelerators, where we interrogated consumption trends, platform evolution, audience segmentation and the impact of AI and all-time high public access on trust and reputation. With relentless change the need for businesses to adapt is critical if they are to avoid being left behind. The opportunity for real estate is to harness more channels to engage growing audiences and inform thinking.  While change can present risk, we should celebrate the fact reporting on property and the built environment is going beyond the trade and business news where it once belonged. In doing so we’re unlocking greater potential to reach new audiences and untapped talent that can join the sector and bring new thinking.

Found this interesting? Sign up to The Accelerator here.