Half-term Friday afternoon, and it seems as though the entire 11-15 segment of London’s female population is in the Oxford Circus branch of Topshop. Activity is frenzied at the Barry M counter, barely visible beneath hordes of teenage girls pecking like magpies at the trinkets on display.

A run on the Mint Green Nail Paint – a dead ringer for Chanel’s Jade – means that it’s out of stock, but by way of compensation there’s a Black Glitter Eye Crayon that, according to the blurb, can be used to “create Lady Gaga’s ‘pure theatre’ look”. Wow! And all for just £4.50, well below the average UK weekly pocket money of £5.66 for 14- to 16-year-olds.