Jane Shepherdson - From High Street Pioneer to Rental Rebel
There’s only one place to start in today’s article, and it’s not with the pound, or what’s left of it! Rather than track the UK’s economic crisis, I spent the last two Mondays evening watching Trouble At Top Shop. Not only does the BBC2 documentary chart the rise and fall of the iconic fashion brand, but it’s also the story of Jane Shepherdson’s journey from high street pioneer to rental rebel. Shepherdson is quite simply one of my female leadership inspirations.
Over two episodes, Trouble At Topshop traces the story of one of the United Kingdom’s most successful high-street brands, and explores how a group of young, talented, and creative women transformed a dated teenage store into a mecca for everyone who loved fashion. That is until the ‘King of the High Street,’ Philip Green bought the company.
The late nineties and early noughties were halcyon days for Topshop. Before the advent of online shopping supercharged fast fashion and consumer demand, a trip to the Oxford Circus flagship store (which opened in 1994) was a pilgrimage. Led by Jane Shepherdson, the team showed what happened when the men at the top let women create what they actually wanted to wear (and subsequently, what happens when you don’t).
Shepherdson started her career at Top Shop as a warehouse picker sending stock to stores before being promoted to become a buyer in the jersey department. She had joined the Burton Group after being inspired by her mother's story of a fashion buyer friend. As a buyer, Shepherdson took a bet on a job lot of tank tops - raising eyebrows among some executives at the company but proving her credentials and eye for a trend as the chain sold 50,000 in a week.
Trusted to run the brand as she saw fit, Top Shop’s collections were refined and elevated, led by what Shepherdson and her team themselves wanted to wear. A fashion circus which would swallow you up for hours, Top Shop’s basement was stuffed with vintage sellers and upcycled pieces long before these became buzzwords. There was even a nail bar, first manned by Nails Inc, and later taken on by Sharmadean Reid’s Wah Nails.
Top Shop not only began showing its own collection at London Fashion Week, but under Jane’s leadership was, for well over a decade, the key sponsor behind the British Fashion Council New Gen initiative. It helped to launch the careers of Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou and Erdem, working with them on collaborations which brought their names to the attention of the public.
She went on to set the direction for the 300-store brand, having increased its profits from £9 million to £110 million and taken on competition from its High Street rivals such as H&M. But then Philip Green acquired Top Shop and the stage was set for a battle for the soul of the now iconic brand.
Green was the antithesis of Shepherdson, and rumours of misogynistic behaviour preceded his arrival. Jane was determined to create a bullet-proof dome around the brand she and her team had so carefully built. And for a few years her strategy worked. Topshop made a lot of money for Arcadia and Philip Green enjoyed the attention this prestige brand brought.
But tensions mounted behind the scenes regarding how business decisions were made. They came to a head when Green brought Kate Moss, the UK's most famous supermodel, into the design team. Realising that the protective dome she’d built to protect her team was bullet-proof no more, Shepherdson resigned. Without Shepherdson at the helm, Topshop was never the same again.
Shepherdson left to advise the charity Oxfam pro bono on how to reposition itself as a desirable retail destination. Then she spent eight years as CEO of Whistles where she and her Top Shop team were pivotal in positioning the brand as an aspirational fashion company, weathering what the label described as "challenging trading conditions" to return to profitability in 2016.
The secret to Shepherdson’s success at Whistles was redefining the handwriting of the brand and helping it to defy many of the challenges faced by Britain's ailing high street. Clothes were designed for the women they admired - those with something to say, who stood for something and could inspire others. Women like Sofia Coppola who Shepherdson described as intelligent, stylish, creative and brave, and Clémence Poésy for her effortless style.
After eight years, Shepherdson felt that she’d achieved what she set out to do. Everything was starting to change in the fashion industry. She increasingly understood the disastrous effect fashion was having on the environment but was unclear how to do it in a more responsible way. So, she decided to take some time out to think about what to do next.
Together with her lawyer husband, Shepherdson took a year-long road trip travelling around Canada and the US, staying in Airbnbs and living out of a suitcase, while most of her vast wardrobe went to charity. She writes here for Vogue about why she took a gap year.
She used the time to consider and research. She knew that she didn’t want to leave fashion, as that was and still was her passion, but she also knew that to change behaviour, you need to offer a viable alternative – something that is equally exciting and fun. Having spent a year in Airbnbs, she thought that the model should work for clothing, too, and decided to try to work out a way of doing just that.
On her return, Jane was invited to a sustainability reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by London College of Fashion and the Countess of Wessex. There was an expectation to look the part. Turning up looking dreadful with the excuse that she’d been travelling for a year, wasn’t an option.
Knowing how popular the online service Rent the Runway was in the US, she looked for a British equivalent. Jane was prepared to spend £200 to £300 on something really fabulous but she couldn’t find anything. She ended up wearing something black that she hoped people wouldn’t really notice.
Shepherdson toyed with the idea of creating a platform for sustainable fashion brands but couldn’t find enough good ones. Then she was approached by Sacha Newall, former head of sales and marketing at My-wardrobe.com (a now defunct luxury-fashion site), and Tina Lake, former head of buying at Monsoon, to join My Wardrobe HQ.
While My Wardrobe HQ was a relatively new format for the UK, it had proved extraordinarily successful for the New York-based trailblazer Rent the Runway which launched in 2009 and is now valued at $1 billion.
The big idea behind My Wardrobe HQ is to stop buying and instead hire clothes for around 10% of their retail price. Both good for our wallets and the planet, since the fashion industry is responsible for more than 10% of carbon emissions.
I hope that you’ve found the story of Jane Shepherdson’s journey from high street pioneer to rental rebel as inspiring as me. If you have, you might like to:…
Watch: Trouble At Top Shop on BBC2
Read: Jane Shepherdson on Topshop, bust-ups with Philip Green and designer rentals
Listen: “I felt I could handle it…” with Jane Shepherdson on the Mary Portas podcast, Beautiful Misfits.
About The Author
I’m Denyse Whillier, and I was a Chief Executive for 8 years, I spent 25 years in senior management and leadership roles and trained at Cranfield School of Management. I made the leap from corporate to founding my boutique business consultancy and have worked with a wide range of small and medium sized businesses, many of which are purpose-led. My mission is to close the gender gap in business and make it easier for women to start, grow and scale a successful business without compromising their values.
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