Published By: Canongate
Pages: 336
Released On: 02/10/2025
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. 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.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I’ve always been a bit fascinated by Mary Portas, she just seemed so cool and looked to have the perfect job, and I’ve been keeping my eye out for this book ever since it was first announced.
There are a lot of chapters, nearly 70, which means they’re short, which I loved. I love a short chapter.
She’s been really honest about a lot of difficult things like losing your parents, new job worries, and the never-ending sorrow of grief.
I understand window dressing and it’s importance as someone who used to work in retail, but I’d never given it much thought as to how it could majorly impact the success of a shop.
There weren’t any photos in my early digital copy, but it definitely needs some – hopefully they will be in the finished copy, because she refers to so many of the window displays and clothes but it’s hard to keep googling trying to find what she’s referring to, so hopefully they will appear in the published copy.
I mean, if you’re into fashion or merchandising then you will love this. I can’t say if you will if you’re not into that. I’m somewhere in between. I’m into it but I’m not a slave to it, I find it interesting. And I don’t think you have to be obsessive about it to enjoy this book. I think you can appreciate Mary’s way of getting her story across without having to have any prior knowledge of brands or shops etc.
I read it in a day, it was absorbing and I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it.
Books By Your Bedside 