the battle of highstreet

so considering that topshop is finally crossing the atlantic on october and i can actually get to one (even though i have to drive eight hours to get there) i decided that since h&m and topshop are the biggest highstreet retailers in the planet, how it would be like if their fall 2008 collection went head to head against each other. h&m with over a thousand stores across the globe is the obvious goliath that topshop is up against. h&m being a swedish company is a more commercial brand. it might be the more fashion forward pieces that gets published on fashion magazines, but in reality the majority of the products are rather generic and middle of the road. and the "fashion" pieces really accounts to about only ten percent of the entire inventory, maybe even less. i might not have personally been inside a topshop store but after spending many many many hours looking at their on-line store and getting upset that i can't purchase any of them because the pound is double and a half the canadian dollar and my credit card is well, not in service, i think it's safe to say that because topshop is geared towards a younger clientele and obviously because of the tradition of british youth culture, the clothes really do have a more fashion sensibility. its as if every product in the store had been carefully thought out and there aren't as much "safe bets" for commerciality's sake. even the choices topshop makes on which designer to collaborate with for a capsule collection, young up and coming designers like christopher kane and danielle scutt validates that the foundation of the company is to build itself not just as a retail giant, but a legitimate fashion company. although i have to say, the roberto cavalli for h&m collection might have been a resounding success money wise, but ask any serious fashion people and they would tell you right off the bat that it was no different from all the cheap shit you see at guess stores. but....since rei kawakubo/comme des garcons is their next guest designer, i think h&m might just kick topshop's ass in regards to that arena. there are some really good stuff at h&m, hell half the shit in my closet is from there and there have been many many times that i leave my house where my total outfit costs less than sixty bucks because its all h&m. i guess it doesn't really matter who's better. because in the end its who buys the clothes and what they do with it that really matters anyways. but it would be so good if topshop comes to toronto so i can figure out all the happy things i can do with it.