Crazy for Kate?
May 1 was renamed ‘K Day’ by certain facets of the British press: the day that Kate Moss’s Topshop range was unveiled to the throngs of fashionistas salivating over the prospect of getting that little bit closer to the Greatest Fashion Icon of Our TimeTM.
Early that morning, in the window of Topshop’s flagship Oxford Street store, a billboard counted down the exact number of seconds until the doors opened at 7am. If the national press were correct, however, fans had been camped out for days; drawn by the possibility of seeing their fashion heroine, but also terrified that the key piece of the collection, the item they were already building their summer wardrobe around, might be snapped up before they even got a chance to step into their local branch.
Fans had camped out for days, terrified that the item they were already building their summer wardrobe around might sell out
Surely a similar sight could be expected down by Coppergate, York being the fashion conscious city that it is? Apparently not; there was no possibility of being in the presence of Kate Moss to lure students out of their beds at the frankly laughable hour of seven in the morning, after all. But wasn’t the clothing range we had been reading about for months enough on its own merit to attract the fashion fans? Didn’t women in York want the chance to be one of the first people in the country to own that little white dress?
After much searching, I managed to track down Alice and Sophie, two first years at the University who were there at Coppergate’s front line on ‘K Day’. The scene they describe is not that of the riots which we were lead to believe would plague Topshop retail outlets all over the country. Alice frowns when I ask her how many people were actually there on that cold Tuesday morning. “Thirty? Forty?” she guesses.
Eventually it is decided that there were probably about 45 people there. Of course, Topshop were prepared for a mob, so even though 45 people could easily be lost in the immense space that is York’s Topshop, security were very strict when they eventually came to open the doors; no more than 15 shoppers were allowed in at a time. This was just one of the many lists of rules that came free with the clothes. Shoppers were also not allowed to purchase more than five items of clothing, nor were they allowed to buy multiple items in different sizes. All of this to ensure that those nasty eBay sellers didn’t make a profit when it became impossible to get your hands on that denim waistcoat in the store. Such rules of purchase, however, didn’t seem to bother either Alice or Sophie, who were both quick to inform me how unimpressed they were by the range.
A vest from Topshop’s ordinary range will set you back about £6. One with Kate’s name on the label is double that price
Both girls claimed to be very much underwhelmed by what they were greeted with, saying that it was overpriced. It would seem that there is evidence to back up their accusation. A plain coloured vest from Topshop’s ordinary range will set you back a rather respectable £6 (or thereabouts). A remarkably similar vest, which happens to have Kate Moss’s name sewn on the label, is double that price at £12. With this in mind - and the fact that much of the range would only look good on a Moss size six - it is no surprise that Alice and Sophie were not instantly enamoured with the clothes. Neither purchased any items, even though they had crawled out of bed at around six in the morning. According to the two of them, very few people actually brought any clothes at all.
So even these self-proclaimed “fans of Kate Moss” were unhappy with the range. But what of those evil eBay sellers, the people who Topshop were so wary of? Surely they must have had more success in selling the clothes?
Well, not really; e Bay works best when you want to sell something that no one else has. Had every single item branded Kate Moss sold in half an hour, sellers on eBay would be having a field day. But the Topshop in York receive daily deliveries of tiny, tiny hot pants and glittery waistcoats. If you can actually buy these things in store than why bother with eBay? Especially when you take into account that someone is currently trying to sell a £12 vest for a starting bid of £17. Of course, there are still people scrambling for a piece of Moss online. But even the now sold-out £60 dress that Kate wore on the cover of Vogue isn’t causing internet hysteria. It’s currently possible to buy it for £84.99, which isn’t the huge mark-up that Topshop had probably presumed.
People who want to look like Kate Moss also want to convey her individuality
The Kate Moss range was in no way a disaster. A sale assistant at Topshop informs me that they probably sell an item from the range every half an hour or so. But they had been expecting the collection to be a lot more popular in the city, especially amongst students. It really would appear that students don’t like the range; I keep meeting people who adore Topshop and claim that Kate Moss is their fashion idol, but who were very much disappointed by the whole thing. The collection was “uninspired” or “looked cheap”. Designs were “copies of things that Kate Moss wears” or “just not flattering”.
It was the statement that the collection was awful because it was “instantly recognisable” that interested me the most. Kate Moss seems like the most obvious person in the world to ask to design a fashion range; she is probably one of the biggest fashion icons in the world. But while Moss may help invent trends, there is still something about Kate Moss’s look which is very individual. Those people who want to look like Kate Moss also want to convey this individuality. To be a fashion icon you have to be willing to break some boundaries. And Kate Moss’s range in Topshop does not do this. Instead of dressing like Kate Moss, you instead find yourself dressing up as Kate Moss. And the worse thing of it all is that every piece in the collection has had so much press, that every single person who sees you knows that this is what you are doing.
