Until the second half of the 20th century AD, the words ‘high street’ and ‘fashion’ would not have been combined. The clothes shops found on high streets from the 1920s to the 1950s – gentlemen’s outfitters, dress shops, hat and shoe shops – followed fashion at some distance. The austerity of the years after World War II meant that there was little choice in ready-made clothing. Many women made their own clothes, or went to dressmakers.

In 1955, Mary Quant opened her first shop, Bazaar, in the King’s Road in Chelsea, London. Within a couple of years, John Stephen had arrived in London from Glasgow and opened his first man’s shop in Carnaby Street. London became the centre of young, affordable fashion, sold in ‘boutiques’, catering for the ‘swinging sixties’. Within a few years, the chain stores were employing new, young designers and bringing the new fashions to the whole country.

New women’s magazines helped to promote fashion and the industry profited by encouraging people to keep up with changing styles. During the 1980s, chains of ‘boutiques’ were created like Next, Top Shop and Miss Selfridge, which promoted seasonal fashion but brought uniformity to the country’s high streets. Fashion became trans-national in the 1980s and 1990s with the establishment of Europe-wide chains like Italian Benetton and Spanish Zara.