Topshop dismantles pop-up promoting feminist book at the last minute, say publishers

‘This book aims to prove that the word ‘feminist’ is accessible to everyone. Today’s event suggests there is still some work to do’

The pop-up at Topshop (Penguin Books/Twitter)

Topshop has allegedly cancelled a partnership promoting a feminist book at the last minute.

After having been fully set up, a display was apparently dismantled hours before the flagship Oxford Street store was due to open.

The reason for the cancellation remains unclear.

The book's publisher, Penguin Books, announced the pop-up's cancellation on its Twitter account this morning, revealing that the display had been taken down at the Topshop store minutes after being assembled.

“For anyone hoping to visit the pop-up, after a huge amount of work on this groundbreaking partnership we assembled our stand this morning and were raring to go - however, just 20 minutes later it had been dismantled by Topshop,” Penguin Books tweeted.

Feminists Don't Wear Pink (and other lies), written by Scarlett Curtis, was published in partnership with UN charity "Girl Up", with the aim of the pop-up to raise money and awareness for the cause.

Founded in 2010 by the United Nations Foundation, Girl Up provides girls and young women around the world with leadership development training in order to empower them and raise awareness for the fight for gender equality.

Naomi Colthurst, a commissioning editor at Penguin Random House Children’s, expressed her disappointment over the cancelled pop-up on Twitter.

“A fairly extraordinary day in the office yesterday when @Topshop decided ‘for some reason’ they didn’t want to host our #FeministsDontWearPink pop-up after all,” she wrote.

“Proof if proof were needed about how much work is still needed to make feminism accessible for everyone.”

Speaking to The Independent, the book's author Scarlett Curtis said that: "After months of hard work for myself and Penguin's incredible team to fulfil our dream of getting a feminist anthology into Topshop and into the hands of the teenage girls that we made this book for, yesterday our store was torn down within hours of its opening."

Curtis claims that: "Despite definite approval from Topshop's side, it took one powerful man coming in and deciding it was too controversial, to take the whole thing down.

"It was traumatising for our amazing team who were on site at the time and in my opinion is a pretty definitive example of why books like ours are still needed.

"All I can say is that if you dismantle our store you better believe I'm coming to smash down the patriarchy in return."

Curtis ended her comments with the hashtag "#PinkNotGreen".

Feminists Don't Wear Pink, which was released this week, has been highly praised by a number of people, including the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling and Fearne Cotton.

While it still hasn't been confirmed why the pop-up has been cancelled, Penguin Books has explained that it’s currently in the process of trying to find another location where the pop-up can be held.

“We’re working on finding another place to host our pop-up and the amazing products that support Girl Up,” the publishing house tweeted.

“This book aims to prove that the word ‘feminist’ is accessible to everyone. Today’s events suggest there is still some work to do.”

A number of people have commented on the situation on Twitter, expressing their confusion over Topshop’s decision to cancel the event.

“My word @Topshop grow up! Ridiculous in the age of #Metoo,” one person tweeted.

“How very, very disappointing. And here I was about to go and buy a few things from @Topshop,” another person commented.

Topshop has since posted a statement with regards to the cancellation of the pop-up on its social media channels.

"Yesterday we made the decision from a production and creative standpoint to retract the Feminists Don't Wear Pink (and other lies) pop-up from one of our stores," the statement reads.

"We are sorry - this in no way reflects our stance on feminism and we will be making a donation of £25,000 to Girl Up.

"We continue to fully support the sentiment of the book, Scarlett Curtis, feminism and equality."