Hundreds of shoppers lined up on Monday for a sneak peek at supermodel Kate Moss' new collection for British fashion retailer, Topshop.
First in line outside the chain's Oxford Street store was Yasmin Kidd, 16, who queued up for a chance to snap up jeans, shirts and dresses designed by Moss.
The line was scheduled to be formally unveiled in Topshop's 225 US stores yesterday. During the next two weeks, the collection will launch in another 21 countries, including at upmarket US store Barney's.
"I want to get first pick," said Kidd, who was accompanied by her mother.
"I'm a fan of Kate Moss and I usually shop at Topshop," Kidd said.
Moss, the 33-year-old model who has inspired fashion trends from skinny jeans to sawed-off shorts, appeared briefly in the shop window in a flowing orange dress to promote the preview only moments before it began.
She was chaperoned around a small area of the store dedicated to her collection by Topshop owner and billionaire Philip Green, who is paying Moss ?3 million (US$6 million) to add celebrity panache to his business.
During the preview, Topshop will let in groups of shoppers to browse for 20 minutes at a time in order to avoid a mad scramble.
Green was cautious about prospects for the line.
"Let's see how it looks and get a couple of days under our belt," he said, as dozens of shoppers busily hunted for bargains behind him.
Customers will be able to try on a maximum of eight garments and will only be allowed to purchase five of them.
The company hopes limiting the number of items per person will discourage shoppers from selling items on eBay.
Shoppers will be able to choose from 50 designs that cost from ?12 for a vest top to ?150 for a cropped leather jacket. Other items on sale include skinny jeans, one-shoulder minidresses and T-shirts with the letter K woven into the designs.
The collection will include a summer line set to hit Topshop next month.
The initial reaction from the shoppers was mixed.
"I didn't think it was all that good," said Cindy Wirk, who was among the first to get to the tills.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has lodged a protest with Pretoria after the name of the Taipei Liaison Office in South Africa was changed to the “Taipei Commercial Office” on the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s (DIRCO) Web site. In October last year, the South African government asked Taiwan to relocate the Taipei Liaison Office, the nation’s de facto embassy, out of Pretoria. It later agreed to continue negotiating through official channels, but in January asked that the office be relocated by the end of this month. As of the middle of last month, DIRCO’s Web
RSS