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Mary Portas: The art of shopping

20.03.07 Anna Richardson

Mary Portas is a force to be reckoned with--a retail force, to be precise. Also known as "Mary, Queen of Shops", she has been in the business for more than two decades, has turned Harvey Nichols from "the place you go to polish your tiara" into a leading fashion brand, and has spruced up the likes of Gossard, Swarovski and Miss Selfridge.

BBC Books hopes that Portas is on the verge of becoming a household name. She previously wrote Windows: The Art of Retail Display (Thames & Hudson), aimed at the retail trade, but is entering new territory with her first TV tie-in, How to Shop with Mary, Queen of Shops (BBC Books, April). The BBC2 programme follows in May, in what promises to be a welcome double-whammy of dry wit and insider know-how for fashion retailers and consumers.

On the TV show, Portas will help troubled independent fashion shops, but the book aims to offer "the ultimate guide on how to shop".

Portas, who reviews shops in the Saturday Telegraph Magazine, says that the idea had been germinating for some time. "Shopping is the biggest pastime in this country, and I have always thought, why has nobody ever done a book or TV show on shopping today, on what shops are like?"

If anyone is unclear about how much can be said on the subject, it seems that Portas could talk about shopping forever. "First in the book I look at the history of shops: when shopping started and how we started doing it," she explains. She explores "fashion tribes", including "Miss Vintage", the "Fashion Follower", the "Disciples of Beckham" and "Mr and Mrs Safe". There are also chapters on when to shop and knowing your shopping rights, plus shop reviews and recommendations.

Portas says she will provide advice on how shops work; when the new collections hit; how to buy shoes, which are apparently shoppers' Achilles' heel ("You go out for a loaf of bread and you come back with shoes," Portas says); how to complain; and more.

Sales assistants come in for some of Mary's tough love, cast in several types, from "Eager Edna" who knows everything to "Dunno Darren" who knows nothing and "Highfaluting Harry" who doesn't care.

Comparisons with names as stellar as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay might be premature, but the TV show comes from über-producer Pat Llewellyn, who brought the two chefs to television--and Portas' straight-talking and tongue-in-cheek mickey-taking, coupled with her expertise, could prove a winning formula.

Portas herself is certainly looking forward to the prospect of being a TV star: "I'd like that. I've always been a TV personality in my head."

She has even loftier aims, however: "We have become quite bland; our high streets have lost that sense of difference and we've lost a sense of service. People have come to expect second best, and therefore they've accepted it. My ultimate goal is that we make shopping the best in the world in this country."

Portas wants to do for shops what TV chefs have done for food and restaurants, and the odds are she might just succeed. And just in case you were wondering: bookshops are currently in favour with Portas. "I think they are quite good. They have reinvented themselves," she says. "I definitely enjoy browsing in bookshops these days."

Authors Anna Richardson

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