Mary Portas
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| Mary Portas | |
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| Born | 1962 United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Retail consultant, television presenter and author |
Mary Portas (born 1962 in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire) is an English retail adviser, journalist and television presenter. She is the founder and creative director of Yellowdoor, a retail communications agency, where she works with Peter Cross to advise fashion, retail, and beauty brands on PR and marketing.
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[edit] Biography
Brought up in a large family in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, her early ambition was to be an actress. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was in the year below Ralph Fiennes. She said, "It was hideous. I left RADA after six months. I couldn't deal with it. Financially, emotionally, I was at a loss." Instead, she went to Watford School of Art and studied graphics and visual display, where she hated the course.[1][2]
[edit] Career
After college, she had a part-time and later a full-time job with Harrods where she was responsible for window displays for about three years, and later joined Harvey Nichols.
Portas is claimed to be one of the UK's foremost authorities on retail and brand communication, and is credited with turning Harvey Nichols into the modern fashion powerhouse that it is [3]. She invented the Harvey Nichols show windows that became part of the tour guides of London. She also persuaded the store's owners to use younger designers. As a consequence, Harvey Nichols went from being a dowager of retail to the favourite shop for fashionable women, including Diana, Princess of Wales.
She regularly travels around the world advising on retail strategy and frequently lectures on the theme of brands and retail.
[edit] Journalism
Portas's first book, Windows - the Art of Retail Display, was published in five languages. She writes a weekly column, Shop! for the Daily Telegraph magazine, reviewing fashion shops across the country. She started writing the column in 2005 and it was her shop critiquing that formed the inspiration for the BBC documentary and accompanying book.[4]
On 7th June 2007, BBC 2 began airing Mary Queen of Shops, a four part series featuring Mary as she goes around a number of ailing shops, aiming to help the owners revitalise their business. The tie-in book to this TV series, entitled How to Shop with Mary Queen of Shops is claimed to be an insider's guide to being a better shopper. It claims to go behind the scenes to show the reader the tricks of the trade, how to shop more efficiently, when to hit the sales, and where to shop according to the reader's shopping 'tribe'. Mary Queen Of Shops returns for a second 5 part series on June 9, 2008.
[edit] Personal life
Married to chemical engineer Graham for 13 years, the couple had two children: son Milo and daughter Verity. She left her husband for Grazia magazine fashion features editor Melanie Rickey. Portas and Ricky now live in Maida Vale with her children, after an amicable divorce from her husband.
