NEW SCHOOL RETAIL. A Conversation With Anna Hampson, Founder, CEO Positive Retail.
Twenty years after Topshop, a conversation on building meaning in retail differently.
This morning I’m sitting in Puerto Escondido with one of my oldest friends.
Twenty years ago, we met on our very first day as Buyers Assistants at Topshop — then the UK’s biggest fashion company. Training rooms. Sample cupboards. Sign-offs. Designer collaborations.
If you know, you know. There was nothing like it. That Oxford Street flagship, that energy, cultural, electric, chaotic… genuinely nowhere else on earth felt like that.
And somehow, here we are in Mexico.
Anna is now the founder of Positive Retail — five stores across the UK, built on beautifully curated surplus designer brands and the belief that fashion can be circular, responsible and still built to scale.
We’ve both built very different businesses. But the values are the same.
So for OFFSHORE — Bodeguita’s digital magazine — we sat down to talk about slow fashion, burnout, B Corp, obscure brands with terrible margins, and what “new school retail” actually looks like today.
The Conversation
Antonia: I can’t actually believe we’re about to have this conversation!
Anna: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Antonia: Do you remember us back then, 20 years ago?
Anna: 20 years ago… oh my God. We met on our first day!!
Antonia: Who would have thought we’d be sitting here in Puerto Escondido nearly 20 years later!
So Anna, what I love about both of our businesses: even though they’re really different, Bodeguita and Positive Retail, they actually share a lot of similar values in terms of independence, longevity, community and doing things with integrity.
Anna: I agree entirely. And I think that’s born from the people that we are — and the experience that we both had from 20 years ago, and our career up until this point. Our businesses were birthed out of the values that we hold dear.
Antonia: Exactly. And probably the values that weren’t so nurtured back in the days of high street fashion.
Anna: Putting it mildly.
On ‘Positive’
Antonia: So the name “Positive Retail” — what does “positive” actually mean to you today, now that you’ve built your business?
Anna: So, to say where the name came from — it came quite easily. The idea for the business came literally on the day that Topshop went into administration… and I was like: the place that we started from — how can that now not exist? How did that happen? Because when we began there, on that first day, you felt — as an employee — you were so invested in all the training… but also the creativity. It felt super positive.
And then you fast-forward 15 years and retail felt really negative. So on the day that Topshop went under, I just thought: it’s got to be a changing of the guards now, because this can’t be it. It needs to be Positive Retail.
Antonia: Has it changed that meaning for you since then?
Anna: Not really, because our mission is “new school retail.” What is new school retail? What does that look like? Topshop’s mission was to democratize fashion — and everything went back to that. For us it’s new school retail: what feels positive, what feels new. Everything we try to do has to feel positive and has to feel new for the retail business.
Antonia: And probably what is new is doing things with intention — being more conscious about who you bring into your retail space, who you’re supporting and why.
Anna: And also, as a business, we’ve got freedom to have quite a passionate voice about things that aren’t right in the industry — and we can have an opinion and a point of view.
Antonia: Yeah — and you’ve been completely fearless in—
Anna: Yeah. I never write anything or say anything for the sake of it. I’m always reacting responsibly to negative things… A big part of what we do — hopefully in a positive way — is educate our customers and educate our community… on realities that we know people don’t.
Antonia: You can never go wrong with the truth. No.
Anna, doing it differently
On sustainability & scale
And that leads me to my next question, which is: we talk so much about sustainability, slow fashion — and actually really beyond the buzzword, what does sustainability mean in terms of investing in, or supporting and championing independent designers?
Anna: Well, I think you’re very good at it. And I think it comes from all the things you were so passionate about at Topshop… We laugh, don’t we? You were finding these young obscure brands and going into the sign-offs with Mary Homer (MD)
Antonia: —“Here she goes again…”
Anna: In those days — which were not the days that we are in now — even then, you knew in your heart and your soul these young, interesting people were worth investing in.
For my business: with surplus, we try to partner with people in the UK — number one, boringly, for logistics, there’s no Brexit — but also because there are loads of great UK brands. We choose to partner with people we know have integrity and the same values as ours… thoughtful brands… Margaret Howell as well — they run their stock so well… they look at every aspect of their business: how they impact the environment, customers, and internally too.
Antonia: So it really aligns with Positive Retail’s values.
Anna: Yeah — and we deal with really thoughtful brands that make stuff that holds its value.
Antonia: And that is sustainable.
Anna: It’s my belief you can grow, but you can still always be thoughtful in what you do and how you execute everything.
Antonia: And that’s such an important point… because if you stay true to your truth, people feel that — the intention, the passion, the soul. And I think that can be scalable.
On Accountability
Anna: We’re B Corp certified now.
Antonia: That’s amazing. Congratulations.
Anna: Thank you. I think there are only about 80 fashion ones — not many.
Antonia: Such an incredible accolade.
Anna: You apply for it and then you have to evidence absolutely everything. It’s quite rigorous interviewing. It took over a year.
But it made me so proud, because every area of the business was looked at. You can’t say you’re doing these things if you’re not doing them.
Where do you get your packaging from? Are you using local suppliers? What’s the mix on your team — gender, background, ethnicity? How are you treating your employees? It’s not just about what’s outward-facing.
Antonia: I think what we are saying is that a business can be scalable — even being slow fashion, even being sustainable — if you stay true to the values you built it for. You build something because you see a lack in the industry. And if you stay true to that, no matter what the competition are doing… longevity lies in the slowness.
Anna: I agree. And I always say to the team: we don’t bake in burnout here. We’ve created a healthy baseline from which to grow. That’s really important to me — for myself and for the team. If you’ve got a burnt-out attitude, that doesn’t equal longevity.
“We don’t bake in burnout here.”
The Puerto Moment
Antonia: Opening Bodeguita here in Mexico — in a small surf town — was so different to London. There are all these amazing creative people here, but most of them aren’t interested in making something commercial. They just love what they do. Being able to work with brands like that here is very different to trying to do that in London.
Anna: But what you did was give them a showcase. You curated your store so they sat next to amazing friends. Everything was considered.
And I remember coming here years ago when I was in London, hating my job. I walked down the hill to your store and I saw you. I saw the calm. And I was in a job that felt soulless. Yes, I was paid well — but I didn’t believe in what we were doing.
I remember thinking: this is so different to my life at home. One day… And that was the inspiration for me setting up my stores. You made me see there’s another way.
“You made me see there’s another way.”
The Next Generation
Antonia: What should the next generation unlearn?
Anna: I don’t know if you saw Willy Chavarria, he was saying that in their design room they talk about what’s going on in the world, so every stitch has that intention. Every fashion office should do that. Instead of it being isolated luxury — how many houses really talk about the state of the world and how they could help it?
Antonia: Instead of asking, “What’s the update on the bestseller? Change the button…”
Anna: Exactly. Too much in the world is distressed at the moment. It’s our duty not to shy away from shining a light on the good and the bad. We have to educate customers. Show our point of view. But also have fun with it — memes of dogs and cats at the end of the day. We’re not saving lives.
“It’s our duty not to shy away from shining a light on the good and the bad.”
On Designers & Cultural Excellence
Antonia: What excites you about the future?
Anna: Designers like Willy. Martine Rose. Grace Wales Bonner. Real people with real points of view. They’re plugged into culture. It feels new and exciting. They’re using excellence to influence things beyond just commerciality.
On Customers & Consciousness
Antonia: Customers are asking better questions now. Where is it made? Who made it? They’re interested.
There is space for more values-led businesses to thrive. Slowness gives brands and communities space to breathe.
Anna: There’s truth through both of our businesses. We’re super truthful with customers. Do you really need that? Do you feel great in it? What would you wear it with? We’re not just here flogging stuff.
“We’re not just here flogging stuff.”
The Future of Bodeguita
Anna: So tell me — the future for you and Bodeguita?
Antonia: Bodeguita has never been just about having a store. It’s about creating a space for independent brands and young designers to rise up and express themselves. If I can help them do that, that gives me joy.
There’s so much creativity here in Puerto and Mexico. I want to expand that culturally — not just designers, but creatives in skate, surf, grassroots movements. Bodeguita has a lot more to give.
Anna: You’re still doing exactly what lit you up at Topshop.
Antonia: And I’m so grateful for that time. For Mary Homer letting me bring in obscure brilliant brands with terrible margin. For Kate Phelan. For those rooms full of inspiring women. It was magic.
Anna: It taught us true creativity. And rigor.
Antonia: Because if everyone genuinely stuck to purpose — people, profit, planet — the future of retail would be bright.
Anna: We all do our best.
Antonia: Thank you so much for doing this.
Anna: Thank you for having me.
Interview over, a tight hug. Just two friends who started in the same sign-off rooms twenty years ago, still backing the same instinct — just on different coastlines.
Positive Retail in the UK.
Bodeguita in Puerto Escondido.
Microphones off, we head down the hill. The Pacific is glassy. Cold beers in hand.
Some things change.
Some things don’t.
Full conversation now live on YouTube →
Explore Anna’s world at www.positive-retail.com| @positive_retail
And ours at www.bodeguitasurf.com | @bodeguita.surfstore
About OFFSHORE
OFFSHORE is Bodeguita’s cultural journal — exploring fashion, surf, skate and independent voices from Puerto Escondido and beyond.
