Overview

A GUARDIAN 'BEST BOOK TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2025' It's the 1990s: Britpop is dominating the charts, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell stare out from the cover of every glossy magazine and British fashion is ripe for reinvention. Leading the charge is a twenty-something Mary Portas who has been brought in to revitalise the department store Harvey Nichols, at the time more likely to be associated with dowagers than daring designers. With department stores in decline and an alpha male leadership team watching closely, the pressure is immense: make it profitable and make it relevant. Mary steps into a world she doesn't fully understand - and at first, it shows. But what seems like vulnerability quickly reveals itself as vision. By the millennium, the store would be renowned for its outrageous, headline-grabbing window displays and patronage by Bolly-swigging duo Patsy and Edina of the iconic sitcom Ab Fab - no longer fusty old Harvey Nichols but Harvey Nicks, daaarling! I Shop, Therefore I Am is the story of how she did it. Mary takes us behind the shop window - to the people who kept the show on the road and the early lessons that shaped her career. Told with her trademark wit, grit and candour, readers will see first-hand how, armed only with the blank canvas of a shop window and her own creativity, Mary created an era-defining global brand destination.

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9781837264414

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Reviews

Mary is my hero -- SCARLETT CURTIS Portas writes with wit and verve * * Independent * * Britain's ""Queen of Shops"" takes us back three decades to her time stalking the floor at Harvey Nichols, at the height of its Ab Fab-inspired cachet * * Guardian * *

A book with all the grit, gossip, beauty and brutality of retail. I couldn't put it down! -- MICHELLE OGUNDEHIN If anyone wants to know what it was like to be a woman working in the heart of London fashion retail in the '90s, Mary Portas's book provides an entertaining rollercoaster ride -- ALEXANDRA SHULMAN Britain's ""Queen of Shops"" takes us back three decades to her time stalking the floor at Harvey Nichols, at the height of its Ab Fab-inspired cachet * * Guardian * * This page-turning memoir is Absolutely Fabulous fun - quite literally. But it is also about the serious business of following one's instincts, taking creative risks and negotiating inflexible (male) managers -- CAROLINE SANDERSON * * Bookseller * * Praise for Mary Portas: 'Portas writes with wit and verve * * Independent * * Mary is my hero -- SCARLETT CURTIS

Author Information

Mary Portas is a businesswoman, broadcaster, author and activist. She has published four books: Windows: The Art of Retail Display, Shop Girl, Work Like A Woman and Rebuild. At age 32 she became a board member at Harvey Nichols before founding her own retail consultancy. Mary has since worked with some of the biggest names in global retail. Her BBC series Mary Queen of Shops premiered in 2007 and she has presented on television and radio ever since. In 2009, she partnered with Save The Children to reinvent charity shops. She also conducted a review of the future for high streets for the British government in 2011. As co-chair of the Better Business Act, Mary heads a coalition of businesses calling for a change in the law to ensure UK companies align their interests with those of wider society and the environment. In 2024 she was awarded an OBE for her services to business, broadcasting and charity.

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