page_title: Topshop
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Topshop / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The outside of oxford street london store of Topshop, the major fashion retailer.
context_page_description: Topshop is a British multinational fashion retailer of women's clothing, shoes, make-up and accessories. It has around 510 shops worldwide – of which some 300 are in the UK – plus online operations in a number of its markets. Its current CEO is Ian Grabiner, and it is part of the Arcadia Group, which is controlled by Sir Philip Green.
context_section_description: Topshop started as a brand extension of the department store Peter Robinson in the 1960s and originally sold fashion by young British designers, such as Mary Quant and Stirling Cooper. Peter Robinson was a women's fashion chain that had been acquired by Burton in 1946. Topshop was founded in 1964 as Peter Robinson's Top Shop, a youth brand within the Sheffield branch and also had a large department in the Oxford Street shop. This was high fashion for the "young and different generation" as The Times put it in 1965, and the department stocked garments by names such as Mary Quant and Gerald McCann. By 1966, it had a branch in the Peter Robinson store in Norwich.
  Peter Robinson's Top Shop buyer Diane Wadey had an eye for young talent and introduced Royal College of Art graduate Jane Whiteside to Jeff Cooper and Ronnie Stirling – the Stirling Cooper brand they created soon had its own sections in Top Shop shops in London and Sheffield, as well as being stocked in Peter Robinson stores in Norwich and Bristol. Other brands stocked at Top Shop included Jeff Banks, French Connection and Radley Cooper.
caption: Topshop's flagship shop in Oxford Street, London
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