Beyoncé And Topshop Join Forces To Form Athletic Streetwear Brand

R&B superstar Beyoncé Knowles and London-based Topshop have formed a 50-50 joint venture company — Parkwood Topshop Athletic Ltd. — to produce an athletic streetwear brand. WWD reported it could launch in stores and online in fall 2015 at the earliest. The deal's expected to be unveiled by Topshop in London today.

"I have always loved Topshop for their fashion credentials and forward thinking," Beyoncé said.

Topshop gives the singer another platform to broadcast her fierce message of sexuality and empowering females that she brings to the stage and screen. She said she'd work with the product development team Topshop puts in place to "create and produce a technical and fashion-led collection" and "participate in all aspects of the partnership."

"This not a collaboration. This is about building a brand and building a business, a separate, proper business, with separate overhead and a separate office," Topshop owner Sir Philip Green told WWD in an interview Sunday, Oct. 26.

Aside from the revenue potential, Green underscored the social-media potential, given the celebrity's global popularity. She has 19 million followers on Instagram, while Topshop has 3.2 million.

"We have much to achieve in just under a year," Green said.

He plans to hire someone to run the joint venture, as well as a creative director, and two designers: one sports-related who understands the technical aspect of workoutwear, the other a fashion designer.

With the deal signed, "Now we can go and talk about hiring some people," Green said. "We've been brainstorming about the name. We haven't got there yet."

The Topshop-Beyoncé collection will include clothing, footwear and accessories across dance, fitness and sports categories. It will have technical performance characteristics as well as an "ath-leisure" side, targeting women who go to yoga or the gym.

Topshop has recently collaborated with Kate Moss on collections as one-offs, the last one being around last Easter, which sold for about a month. Beyoncé's existing product range under her name extends from a trio of fragrances to temporary tattoos and juniors, dresses, denim and hip-hop-inspired clothing from her House of Dereon fashion business, formed about a decade ago by Beyoncé and her mother/stylist Tina Knowles.

For years, Beyoncé has worn pieces from the brand, surprising fans with her taste for affordable fashion. While Beyoncé created a line of swimwear with H&M in 2013, this athletic collection with Topshop will translate to more customers and show more of her personal aesthetic.

The collection will be distributed to Topshop stores and topshop.com, but also to other retailers. One likely spot for the Beyoncé collection is in New York, where Topshop-Topman will open a flagship Nov. 5 at 608 Fifth Ave. on 49th Street opposite Saks Fifth Avenue.