Mary Portas
Wednesday 18 March
We meet the innovative businesswoman known variously as Britain’s ‘Queen of Shops’ and ‘Queen of Frocks’. She has revitalised department store Harvey Nichols and, as a high-profile innovator and TV personality, her recent book I Shop, Therefore I Am tells her fascinating story, full of her trademark wit, grit and candour.
Interviewer:
Hattie Crissell
Hattie Crissell is a freelance journalist and a contributing editor of Grazia magazine. She often chairs events at bookshops and festivals and has appeared on BBC Radio 4's Front Row and Woman's Hour.
I Shop, Therefore I am
Well known from her many series on the small screen, Mary Portas joins us at Kent House to talk about her fascinating story, starting from a time early in her career when she critically ‘stalked the floor’ of Harvey Nichols prior to turning it into the forward looking, trend setting department store that it is today, a startling contrast to the fusty outlet of old, more associated with dowagers than daring designers.
Mary has subsequently gone on to launch her own creative company with a specific mission to transform businesses into brands - places and spaces that people want in their lives. Today her team works with clients ranging from Mercedes to Sainsbury’s whilst she has also become a regular on TV presenting series such as Mary Portas: Secret Shopper and Mary Queen of the High Street.
Her latest book I Shop, Therefore I Am takes us behind the shop window and tells first-hand how, armed only with the blank canvas of a shop window and her own striking creativity, Mary turned Harvey Nicks into a store known for its outrageous, headline grabbing, traffic-stopping window displays, going on to create a business empire that has stood the test of time.
"Portas is a sort of tornado, unpredictable, funny and slightly terrifying, travelling at the speed of light. But in the quiet eye of this storm of a book lies great wisdom and truth. Absolutely irresistible. " JOANNA LUMLEY