Mary Portas
Friday 3rd October
The Lighthouse Auditorium, Chapel Street, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EG
6.40pm
7pm
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. She doesn't rely on fitting in; she leans into instinct, takes bold creative risks and reimagines what luxury could be.
By the millennium, the store would be renowned for its outrageous, headline-grabbing, traffic-stopping window displays; patronage by style icon Lady Di and 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.
Author Biography: Mary Portas is one of the UK's most high-profile and innovative businesswomen. After making her name transforming Harvey Nichols into a global fashion destination, Mary launched Portas, her own creative company, with the mission to transform businesses into brands, places and spaces people want in their lives. Today her team work with clients ranging from Mercedes to Sainsbury's. She has been a regular on our TV screens, advised the government on the future of high streets and developed a fashion label. Her proudest achievement to date is the creation of twenty-six Mary's Living & Giving shops for Save the Children. She is the author of Shop Girl, Work Like a Woman and Rebuild.