Fashion retailers all too often behave like sheep. They crowd into the area which seems to be doing best.

In the early 1990s when M&S the top performer there was a concentration in the middle ground. Over the last few years it has been price led retailers and young fashion chains that have made all the running. So the role models at present are Primark (which no-one has succeeded in copying), Peacocks, Matalan, young fashion chains such as Topshop, New Look and River Island and young fashion brands such as Ted Baker and Superdry.