Sir Philip Green had "no stress" working with Beyoncé Knowles.
Sir Philip Green
The 64-year-old Chairman of Arcadia group, which includes Topshop, has revealed working with the 'Formation' hitmaker on her Ivy Park active wear collection, which will hit stores on Thursday (14.04.16), was a pleasure at every stage.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper about the collaboration on the sportswear range, he said: "Beyoncé is our partner. I'm personally a bit negative on collaborations. I'm not interested in a hit and run. It's too much work for 10 minutes in the sun. She's super cool. When you get rid of all the people she comes in with, she says hi to everyone, and sits down, and off you go. You're told you only have 40 minutes, and then three hours later, I'm like, 'try that on, try that on...' We laugh and joke and it's easy. No stress. She's a perfectionist."
Green insisted said the decision to work with the former Destiny's Child star - who has four-year-old daughter Blue Ivy with her husband Jay Z - was an easy one to make, although he felt a lot of pressure not to do anything that could harm her brand.
He said: "Well you wouldn't not be interested would you? If you like cakes and someone turned up with a big tray of cakes, it would be difficult to say, 'I don't want one.' You're not going to get anyone better.
"It's not easy to partner Beyoncé. Her brand is on the line. Our brand is on the line. It's very big stakes. We wouldn't let one another down. She's about to embark on a global tour. Imagine if we screw that up?"
Meanwhile, Sir Philip won't be returning to work with the 42-year-old supermodel Kate Moss - who joined forces for the Topshop collection in 2014 - although they remain friends.
Speaking about collaborating again with Kate he said: "Kate's unique. It was at a time that was good for her and good for us. It worked. I don't think so. She's a mate. We moved on."