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Shepherdson started her career at Topshop as a trainee buyer when she left fashion college in the mid-1980s. She has never worked anywhere else — despite numerous lucrative offers. M&S is among those that are known to have tried to poach her, but nobody has yet managed to tempt Shepherdson away from Topshop.

It was the growth of discount retailers such as Matalan and New Look in the 1990s that led to the creation of today’s Topshop. Until then, Shepherdson admits, Topshop had always been seen as “cheap and cheerful, but a bit naff”.

When upstarts such as Matalan stole market share by attracting shoppers with low prices, Topshop was forced to act.

“We had to take a position and our overheads were too high for it to be price. We decided we were going to be the home of fashion,” explained Shepherdson.

It was a brave move. She spent millions transforming the Oxford Street store and recruited young designers. Topshop also became a major sponsor of London Fashion Week, where this year it will be the first retailer to show.

A few years later Shepherdson and Topshop were being lauded. “Once famously naff. Now just as famously cool,” wrote the fashion editor of one national newspaper.

It was at that moment that Shepherdson realised she had pulled it off. Topshop had been transformed from a high-street retailer into a fashion icon.

Topshop today is increasingly an international fashion phenomenon. Last year The New York Times devoted a feature to the Oxford Street store and the growth of the “Topshop” girl. And for many tourists, a trip to Topshop is an essential part of a visit to London. It’s not just tourists who come: buyers for retailers all around the world drop in to check out what is on offer.

So what is the key to Topshop’s success? Shepherdson believes it is the fact that the retailer never says no to an idea. “There is a creative streak that runs through the business,” she said.

That creative streak is why Oxford Street has a VIP personal shopping service, and boutiques were allowed to open stalls within a number of Topshop’s largest stores.

But most important, she believes that it is the affinity with its customers. “We are our customers. We are successful because it is women who are running it,” she pointed out.

Look around the Topshop floor in the Arcadia office and it’s difficult to spot a man.

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