LONDON, September 24 /PRNewswire/ --     Piper Jaffray Ltd., a leading, international middle market investment
bank and institutional securities firm, today launches the results of its 1st
Autumn Fashion-Trend Survey.

Key Findings

- Warehouse, Zara and Topshop are the winning women's brands for
translating designer looks to the High Street. Topman, Zara and French
Connection come out top for men.

- Warehouse leads the high street fashion pack for matching high street
designer fashion looks into reasonably priced clothes ranges for its
customers.

- Zara, targeted at the ever more fashion-forward High Street consumer,
delivers fast fashion with exceptionally reasonable prices.

- Topshop provides the top pieces for the season however, despite catwalk
help in-house, can't match Warehouse and Zara for being able to replicate all
the catwalk inspired looks.

- Other retailers, such as Karen Millen and Reiss may not be overall
leaders, but they have instead focused on specific themes which suit their
brand and consumer profile. For instance, Karen Millen has excellently
exploited the S&M/waist-inspired catwalk trends and Reiss has gone for
"futurism", ",minimal", "texture" and "block colour" as key catwalk led
looks.

- Bottom of the heap lies Gap due to an overly casual-styled brand
profile, indicating the need to venture into more trend-led colours and
fabrics to attract the consumer's wallet.

Mike Dennis, senior research analyst, Piper Jaffray Ltd., said:

"The results from our Autumn Fashion-Trend Survey are more varied than
our Spring survey, indicating that this season's catwalk inspired trends have
either been too difficult for the High Street to interpret and translate
commercially, or not suitable for certain brand profiles," Mike Dennis,
senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray Ltd. said.

"Although consumer spending on the High Street is slowing, we expect High
Street fashion brands to continue to report increased sales densities and
volumes as the consumer rebalances their reduced spend to incorporate more
affordable High Street fashions."

Notes to Editors

About Piper Jaffray Ltd.

Piper Jaffray Ltd. is a subsidiary of Piper Jaffray Companies and offers
investment banking, equity research and equity sales and trading within
Europe to middle market corporations, private equity groups and institutional
investors.

Based in London, Piper Jaffray Ltd is the market leader in the UK
healthcare and life sciences sector as adviser and broker to 18 healthcare
clients. The firm also has specialist teams in the Technology, Alternative
Energy and Consumer sectors. Piper Jaffray Ltd. is authorised and regulated
by the Financial Services Authority and is a member of the London Stock
Exchange.

About Piper Jaffray Companies

Piper Jaffray Companies is a leading, international middle market
investment bank and institutional securities firm, serving the needs of
middle market corporations, private equity groups, public entities, nonprofit
clients and institutional investors. Founded in 1895, Piper Jaffray provides
a comprehensive set of products and services, including equity and debt
capital markets products; public finance services; mergers and acquisitions
advisory services; high-yield and structured products; institutional equity
and fixed-income sales and trading; and equity and high-yield research. With
headquarters in Minneapolis, Piper Jaffray has 25 offices across the United
States and international locations in London and Shanghai.

About the Piper Jaffray Autumn Fashion-Trend Survey

Piper Jaffray looked at 30 different clothes brands and rated the brands
on how well they have interpreted the looks and themes of autumn fashion.
Each retail brand was assessed against a trend summary list compiled from
catwalk fashion shows, trend websites and designers. They all scored on a
scale of 1-4, where 4 was excellent and 1 was limited in their interpretation
of fashion trends.

The data was presented in four ways: the total score, total score
excluding accessories, on-trend rate and looks achieved. The rankings reflect
how brands performed in all categories.

The survey then ranked the brands in three categories:

- the top womenswear retailers

- the middle scores, and

- the bottom retailers.

The results -womenswear retailers

Ranking      Brand
    1            Warehouse
    2            Zara
    3            Topshop
    4            Oasis
    5            Mango
    6            Karen Millen
    7            Reiss
    8            French Connection
    9            Cos
    10           River Island
    11           Primark
    12           H&M
    13           M&S
    14           New Look
    15           Urban Outfitters
    16           Principles
    17           Bershka
    18           Miss Selfridge
    19           Monsoon
    20           Ted Baker
    21           Dorothy Perkins
    22           Debenhams
    23           Next
    24           Tesco
    25           Asda
    26           Gap
    27           Esprit
    28           Matalan



The Piper Jaffray Autumn Fashion-Trend Survey can be accessed from
Melanie Toyne-Sewell, Julian Walker or Harriet Forrest from The Hogarth
Partnership, tel +44(0)207-357-9477 or email hforrest@hogarthpr.co.uk

Contact:

    Piper Jaffray Companies
    Rob Litt
    Tel: +1-612-303-8266

    The Hogarth Partnership
    Melanie Toyne-Sewell / Julian Walker / Harriet Forrest
    Tel: +44(0)207-357-9477