Known as the woman who made Topshop cool, Jane Shepherdson is my all-time favourite.
She changed the way woman buy and wear fashion. "In the mid-1990s she created such well-designed, style-savvy clothes it became de rigueur to wear high-street fashion". Girls like us take this for granted now, but back then it was either really cheap high-street threads or expensive designer labels.
She believes women should be running the women's clothing stores on the high street. "I think women have a more instinctive understanding of what women really want…You know, all the crap talked by men in retail - formulas and percentages. To me that's utter nonsense. That's not how women shop. You don't say, Oh, a percentage of my wardrobe will be this and a percentage that."
Now she has turned her focus to the mid-market. After buying a 20 per cent stake in Whistles in 2008, she launched her first collection last season- and it turned out to be everything we hoped. Affordable and directional, with must-have cuts and pretty pieces. Shepherdson still has that magic touch. From what I read on her wikipedia she is married to a criminal defence lawyer, and cycles from their flat in South London to work. Oh and yes she also works with Oxfam, helping to launch their ethical fashion boutiques- for free. Can she be any cooler?
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