For those who remembered Harvey Nichols in its heyday, Mary Portas’s talk on her new book I Shop Therefore I Am about dressing its windows in the 90s was a trip down memory lane. For those who didn’t, it was a fascinating insight in to a time when big brands ruled and what you bought defined who you were – Mary making the luxury department store the epicentre. Mary recalls Patsy and Edina from Ab Fab’s enduring phrase, ‘Let’s go to Harvey Nicks darling!’.
But Mary gave far more than that to a sold out crowd at Marlborough’s Town Hall talking to broadcaster Shirley Ludford. Looking suitably stylish in a boiler suit and Ray Ban glasses, she spoke of growing up the fourth of five kids in an Irish Catholic household, about the two teachers who encouraged her acting talents in a repressed Watford convent school. Then how her world came crashing down when both her parents died within two years and she was left homeless at 19 as her father left the family home to his second wife of six months. “There are times in life where you think you can’t get through this and those are the times you grow,” she admitted.
And grow she did: she was display manager at Topshop by the age of 25, then poached by Harvey Nichols at 28 where she felt completely out of place. “I turned up looking like Cydni Lauper when I should look like Lady Di!” she laughed. Mary discussed her failures getting the windows right until one display, Car Henge (inspired by an exhibition she saw at Whitechapel Gallery) started stopping traffic. Soon art magazines and radio stations wanted to talk to her and there started her influence on the cultural barometer.
Mary was working alongside the likes of Ralph Lauren (there was a funny story about badly behaved cleaners), Betty Jackson (who led her to Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley), Naomi Campbell (see the book) and lived a life being flown around the world at the forefront of an environment she thought she didn’t fit in to.
After nearly 10 years, she left Harvey Nichols disillusioned by retail being led by finance rather than creativity. Another 10 years later, she was making TV shows such as Mary Queen of Shops, Mary Queen of Frocks and Mary Queen of the High Street, which coined her title. In 2011 she was asked to compile a report on the future of the high street by David Cameron and Nick Clegg. “There won’t be time for any more questions now,” she joked as she clearly found the experience deeply frustrating – especially being told to ask the advice of Sir Phillip Green and Sainsbury’s former CEO Justin King.
She talked about the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs and how that’s had a profound effect on her views on the high street. Her mission now is to help bring back thriving communities and encourage people to come together to look after the place they life. “Covid made it so evident that we all just want to connect,” she said. Her two pieces of advice for high streets are: “What can you do that Amazon doesn’t?” and “Every pound you spend locally is on making your community better.” Top tips.
Her charity endeavour as Global Retail Ambassador for Save The Children, Mary’s Living & Giving Shop, has raised £32 million to date, she revealed to a round of applause, selling clothes donated by Victoria Beckham and numerous other celebrities. Having spent years thinking she had to go out in something that looked new – and selling that concept – she’s now come full circle. “I want to be part of the society where reusing, reselling and secondhand and being absolutely conscious of what you’re doing and wearing is much sexier. That’s the goal we have. And never buy anything from Shein!”
‘I Shop Therefore I Am’ by Mary Portas – published by Canongate
LitFest ’25 – a view of this year’s Festival from Nick Fogg
