What shops are in the Arcadia Group - and how each brand could reinvent itself

Right now, chaos reigns. But over the next few weeks and months, the Arcadia empire will be carved up and some or all of the brands will be taken over by other retailers. These new owners will be expanding their portfolios, using the cachet of an established name and – I hope – wanting to turn these important British brands back into the inimitable stores they were in their heyday.

And what a heyday it was: Topshop was once the most exciting shop in Britain, Wallis collaborated with iconic labels like Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent, Evans brought plus-size to the high-street and Burton was the go-to shop for men’s suiting for decades.

But all of them were struggling long before we had heard of a virus from Wuhan, and a new owner can’t just rewind time. Instead, they will need to update the entire aesthetic for a 2020 mindset and post-pandemic needs.

Here’s a direction of travel I think could work for each brand:

Topshop

Anyone who has stepped into the madness of the Oxford Street emporium on a Saturday afternoon knows that Topshop appeals predominantly to young women. Yes, older customers have bought their jackets and coats over the years, but in terms of cut, colour, advertising and even sizing, Topshop has youth written all over it.

Part of its failure to survive this year is down to the store’s inability to compete with fast-fashion websites like Boohoo and Missguided – brands that sell colourful, often revealing pieces designed to look good on Instagram, but at half the price of the high street.

If Topshop wants to keep its shops, it can’t drop its prices but it can start selling better-made, more trend-driven pieces than its fast-fashion rivals. Young American celebrities like Hailey Baldwin have really captured the aesthetic that women under 30 want to emulate – and Topshop needs to hire savvy designers to make affordable separates like this bralette and cardigan, and the countless other pieces they are regularly snapped in. Jeans and accessories always do well as they sell across all ages and Topshop also needs to try and own that market again.

The brand has undoubtedly lost the cool factor it had when it partnered with Kate Moss and showed at London Fashion Week – but with the right ambassadors and a good design team in place, cool can always be rediscovered.

Miss Selfridge

If Topshop appeals to a woman in her twenties, then Miss Selfridge is for her younger sister. The under-21 fashion market has transformed in recent years thanks to the rise of internet shopping, and this in turn has shaped an entirely new look for Gen Z. But Miss Selfridge never changed alongside it.

It’s a confusing age group to get your head around. Nearly 90 percent of British teens are 'worried or extremely worried' about climate change, yet they buy mountains of ultra-cheap clothes, wear them once or twice for social media and then discard them.

Teenagers, for example, are the drivers behind a spate of entirely new retailers. Chinese e-brand Shein sells dresses for as little as £10 and jeans for £15 and is an environmental disaster, but it also deployed an army of TikTok influencers to capture the hearts and wallets of school-age shoppers.

Miss Selfridge should follow a similar pattern by harnessing the power of TikTok and other social media platforms while also pushing the aesthetic favoured by young women, which often includes chunky boots, like these worn by Kendall Jenner, and various throwbacks to the Nineties. But unlike Shein, Miss Selfridge needs to work on a sustainability angle so young women can buy the clothes they love while doing the least environmental damage possible.

Wallis

When I wrote a piece about Wallis my colleagues on the fashion desk couldn’t believe the labels the old stalwart had collaborated with: Chanel, Dior and even Yves Saint Laurent. Wallis?! It was like finding out your forgettable next-door neighbour had once been married to a celebrity.

But while Wallis has faded into the background in the last few years, I do believe its popularity – if not its high-fashion past – can be recaptured, particularly since Wallis still has a loyal following, or at least it would do if it made slightly better clothes.

To do well, it needs to follow a Massimo Dutti model. The Italian brand sells separates in classic materials and colours that are designed to last and which flatter women of all ages. Prices are higher than Zara and in line with French companies like Sandro. But what Massimo Dutti does so well in particular is make pieces for a slightly older customer without ever straying into dowdy or frumpy territory – like this well-cut black dress that could be worn by anyone from 16 to 60. A British brand with an Italian touch: what could be better?

Burton

It was founded in 1903 at a time when tailoring was still an elitist affair and off-the-peg suits were a novelty – and over the next few decades, it dressed a rising middle class in need of affordable suits.

In the last decade, it has partnered with celebrities like Jamie Redknapp, while also losing some of its market to rival companies like River Island. But this year has been a disaster for the brand as demand for suits has dropped tenfold. And even once there is a vaccine in place, the pandemic is likely to shape our relationship with the office for years to come, with far more people insisting on working from home.

Instead of diversifying away from suits, I think Burton needs to start making tailored separates for women too. The fashion industry is becoming increasingly gender-neutral and the brand could do well by producing well-cut jackets and trousers, like these ones from Arket, that women will wear for far more occasions than just the office. This would – I hope – reinvigorate the men’s collections too.

Evans

The lack of well-made plus-sized clothes has never made much business sense. In the UK the sector is estimated to be worth around £7 billion – nearly 20 percent of the market – and throughout lockdown it has been one of the only parts of the industry to grow rather than shrink.

Evans was one of the first stores to bring plus-size clothing to the high street and for that they must be applauded - but in recent years it started making bulky clothes in dark colours that appealed to very few people. Soon it couldn’t compete with the well-made, fashion-forward clothes being released when the plus-size market started booming – as evidenced by new collections from brands like Karen Millen.

Although the best of them all has to be Violeta by Mango. With consistently well-designed clothes that reference all the current trends and bear a strong resemblance to the rest of the Mango output, it is increasingly the plus-size high-street store to beat – and is light years ahead of Evans.

Except, unlike Evans, Violeta isn’t in many of Mango’s brick and mortar stores and nor does it have a long-held reputation in the UK, particularly among older customers. So please, any future buyers, get rid of the tent dresses and start designing pieces like this cape and eye-hole blouse that women actually want to wear.

Dorothy Perkins

Dorothy Perkins certainly has a colourful past: in the Sixties it co-funded Biba's expansion into a large boutique on Kensington High Street and by the Seventies it owned nearly 80 percent of the ultra-fashionable multi-designer store.

Bought by the Burton Group (aka Arcadia) in 1979, Dorothy Perkins recruited Helena Christensen as the face of the brand and in 2012, Khloe, Kourteney and Kim Kardashian launched the Kardashian Kollection in the UK with the chain.

But in the last few years, it has lost its way, with no clear idea of who it is appealing to or what kind of clothes it is selling. Its plus-size output is impressive but it needs to narrow down its look and start making the sort of easy dresses and jumpers most women want to wear to the office – the kind of pieces & Other Stories do so well. Perhaps, even, by playing on its Biba past, and bringing back some of the famous prints from that era?

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