I’d be first in line for a brand new Topshop retailer, says HELEN CRANE – however this is why I do not suppose it will occur

It would have been the retail comeback of the century. 

This week, millennial fashion favourite Topshop posted a cryptic picture online of some models standing under a branded banner with a simple message: ‘We missed you too’. 

It’s fair to say that women of a certain age – mine, in their 30s – were whipped into a frenzy. 

‘The best news I’ve heard in a while’, the posts on X read. ‘A game changer’. ‘Our dreams have been answered’. 

If the rumours were true, and the brand – which left high streets five years ago for reasons including the pandemic, the rise of online shopping and well-publicised financial trouble – was returning in physical form, this would be huge.  

I still remember my first Topshop purchase, aged about 14, in the tiny outpost in my small midlands market town. 

Teaser: The Topshop website is back in action, with a cryptic holding message 

I used the money from my Saturday job to buy a light pink button down shirt and a maroon t-shirt to wear on top of it, copying an outfit I’d seen Sarah Jessica Parker wear in Sex and the City. I threw in a pair of sparkly ballet shoes to boot. 

So iconic was the Topshop brand, that I used the carrier bag to take my PE kit to school until it disintegrated.

Once I was in my twenties and had more cash to splash, I went to Topshop’s Oxford Circus store constantly. A dress for a wedding? Topshop. Some new work gear? Topshop. You could even get a blow dry or, if memory serves, at one point, a tattoo.

Since its demise, I still haven’t quite worked out where to shop. The brand name was bought out by Asos which designs and sells Topshop-labelled clothes online, but it’s just not the same. 

Sadly, a statement from the firm has poured cold water on the idea that Topshop will be opening new shops any time soon. 

All that’s happening, for now, is the relaunch of the Topshop website – which currently reads ‘coming soon,’ and an ‘art installation’ using images of Topshop fans set to take place in London.

But could it eventually be the iconic brand to buck the high street decline and open up a flagship store? There are a few reasons why it might actually work. 

Part of Topshop’s downfall was the rise of super-cheap fast fashion websites like Shein, Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing, where a dress could be snapped up for little more than pocket change.

But tastes are changing again. A couple of weeks ago, struggling Boohoo group announced a plan to rebrand itself as Debenhams – the 247-year-old department store brand it bought out of administration in 2021.

While Debenhams remains online only, it shows how an iconic name still has pulling power.  

More generally, some shoppers are feeling guilty about the impact of throwaway frocks on the environment – and perhaps realising that uber-cheap clothes are no better for their wallet if they only wear them a few times and then get bored.

And returning clothes bought online is increasingly a pain, with more retailers charging fees or making customers pay for postage – which hardly seems worth it on cheaper items.

But, heartbreakingly for me and my millennial comrades, the chances of Topshop throwing open the doors to its Oxford Street once again are slim.

For one thing, that store is about to open as an Ikea.

But more generally, confidence among consumers is down in the dumps.

Even the cost of parking is so expensive, it’s putting people off going to the shops.

The minimum wage is going up in a few days, which retailers say will hit their bottom line and force layoffs. 

New Look, once a rival of Topshop (though nothing ever really rivalled it in my opinion) is shuttering stores – reportedly for this very reason.

Changes in employer national insurance contributions also won’t help.

The only stores that are opening are the likes of Superdrug, Waitrose and Screwfix. 

Places you can pop in on your lunch break to pick up the essentials. 

Not the sort of place teenagers would flock to from miles around every Saturday to spend hours trying on armfuls of clothes, getting outfit inspiration from fellow fashionistas and debating whether to get a nose ring the in-store piercing bar. 

Certainly not places where you’d find Kate Moss draped in the window, as she did to promote her Topshop range back in 2007.

So for now, Topshop opening a real shop sadly seems like a pipe dream. 

But if it does, I’ll be queuing outside the door on day one. 

I know I won’t be alone.