Topshop and Topman have been making headlines for months as the team behind them teased their comeback plan. And at the weekend it all fell into place and was just about the best feelgood news story out there.

On Friday, the long awaited standalone website went live, then on Saturday, the two brands took over London’s best known landmark – Trafalgar Square – to stage a runway show with Cara Delevingne, Adwoa Aboah, Tolu Coker, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in attendance.

Open to the public, the show featured new, unsigned talent discovered through an open casting call launched earlier this summer in collaboration with Wilhelmina Models London. And there was a live DJ set from Norman Jay and Melvo Baptiste.

But the big focus was what was actually in the AW25 See Now, Buy Now collections (as well as a preview of styles set to drop later in the season).

For Topshop, the retailer delivered sharp tailoring, outerwear, dresses and denim with key looks including a patchwork shearling coat, strong-shouldered 1980s tailoring, drop-waist jackets, signature patterned knitwear and fluid, voluminous skirts. The palette mixed dark charcoal and deep navy with bold hints of dark red and rich chocolate. Denim was reworked into “clean modern silhouettes” and new washes, while also spotlighting the brand’s popular Jamie and Joni jeans.

Topman was all about “modern utility”, blending “refined” formalwear with “sharp new silhouettes and impeccably cut pieces that embodied the brand’s commitment to elevated quality and contemporary design”. Think check wool coats paired with handknits and pleated, wide-leg tailored trousers, utility trousers, unique prints and embroidered jersey pieces, all grounded in denim in deep indigos, grey, and black.

Topshop/Topman MD Michelle Wilson said the show was “a love letter to London – its energy, creativity, and global influence. The return of Topshop.com is more than a relaunch; it’s a reinvention. And this is just the beginning”.

As for the new webstore, offers next day and standard delivery options, as well as a super-quick option.

The runway show is on there, and the product focus in clearly on trend-led pieces, including Delevingne’s new ‘Cara Edit’. It looks strong enough to appeal to any Gen Z or Millennial with an eye on trends, as well the Gen X and even Boomers who loved it in its heyday.

But the big question remains whether the brand(s) will ever open physical stores. We know that it will return physically via wholesale and that Wilson has rejected the idea of it returning in exactly the same form of that heyday with a big chain of physical shops. Its former flagship is now occupied by Ikea, after all. But if the comeback is a big success, who knows?