Queen Bey Teams Up with Topshop

London High Street brand Topshop and Beyoncé Knowles have created a joint venture company - Parkwood Topshop Athletic Ltd. - to produce an athletic streetwear brand.

Topshop owner, Sir Philip Green, told WWD, "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,".

So how did the two major forces come together? Green said, "Basically, when she was in London in February we arranged to get together. We started talking generally, about doing something together. We've been looking at that [athletic] sector for a while. It's something we need to be in. Based on what she does, how she works out, the conversation got into that category. We started getting into proper conversation in May or June, as to how it would work. It took six or eight weeks to put a deal together. On Friday, "Beyoncé came to our office for the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle."

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

It seems like a perfect match given Topshop's edgier tone and Beyoncé's penchant for female messages of sexuality and power. Plus it gives Topshop major street cred to have a superstar like Beyoncé as a partner.

A lot still needs to happen before the first collection can be produced like creating the team, establishing the home base and figuring out manufacturing logistics. Green feels the office will likely be New York based. In addition to hiring creating directors and designers, they need to come up with a name! Green said, "We've been brainstorming about the name. We haven't got there yet."

What we do know, no name aside, is that Topshop-Beyoncé collection include clothing, footwear and accessories that will get women to the gym, yoga and dance in a stylish and functional way. The line will be available in Topshops stores, online and in other retailers. "Assuming the line is sufficient, it will certainly be in our biggest stores, hopefully as a shop within shop, having its own identity in the stores, certainly in the stores where we have the space. Outside of our own stores, we will talk to Nordstrom where we've got a relationship and then we see who else we talk to from there."