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Related: Film discussion forum.

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Related: Film discussion forum.

Telly addicts

where's the mary portas thread

82 replies

grumpypants · 04/10/2011 21:47

Can't stand her, but still, nice to chat

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 04/10/2011 21:50

I was just looking for a thread about this. Missed the beginning, but it all seems a bit chaotic. I agree about ditching the fascinators though!

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grumpypants · 04/10/2011 21:56

Yeah but who is she pitching at? All fifty year old women? Like they all want the same thing. She is nuts.

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AnyoneButLulu · 04/10/2011 22:00

Have just screamed at the telly:
MP "Oh Noes! They have demanded impossibly hard sales targets. How can I possibly meet targets like these in my first year when there us a recession on?"
ABL "oh you poor thing. If only you could get some kind of marketing help? Something like, ooh, 3 FUCKING HOURS OF PRIME TIME TERRESTRIAL ADVERTISING TELLY"

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 04/10/2011 22:01

I don't know. Amanda seems like a good bet, not sure about Mark, I find him a bit sinister. Siobhan needs a bit of a makeover, can't see her face under all that Haida and make up.

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slartybartfast · 04/10/2011 22:02

i didnt watch it because she said " O M G"

she actually spilled out the initials fgs!

dont like her.

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 04/10/2011 22:02

hair I mean, on phone.

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MollieO · 04/10/2011 22:02

I usually like her programmes but she is seemingly clueless on what real womens' bodies are like. I didn't like the comment she gave the dummy body - 'I have to dress this [sneer] you can see what I'm up against'. I reckon she alienated her entire target market by that comment at what looked like a size 14-16 body.

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 04/10/2011 22:04

Quite. We didn't get that good a look at her clothing choices but they didn't look as though they had the fuller figure in mind at all.

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MollieO · 04/10/2011 22:10

I was interested as I'm completely her target market. Doesn't make me want to watch next week nor seek out her clothing choices.

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southeastastra · 05/10/2011 08:53

i don't really get this either. surely there are tons of shops that cater for the 'thinner' woman, those jackets she loved at the end surely can be found in lots of higher end shops.

it's fashionable clothes that flatter the 'fuller' figure, that's where the market has a gap i thought. a bit confused who she is aiming at.

the country casual woman was bonkers, i liked her

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soverylucky · 05/10/2011 10:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

grumpypants · 05/10/2011 12:29

Plus, she spoke to the jaegar bloke and mentioned 'affordable' few scenes later and she's on about these wonderful shirts retailing at 95 quid each! Back in your box mary

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limitedperiodonly · 05/10/2011 15:41

I hate her too.

Her clothing collection is awful but keeps getting praised by fashion editors and given an extended advert on the telly.

During a newspaper interview about the collection the writer described how Portas barked at a hovering assistant to go away. The writer seemed to take this as proof of great leadership skills.

I keep wondering in what world it's okay to snap at an assistant rather than say: 'Hold on a moment, FashionMagHag. Is there something you need to speak to me about Assistant, or could it wait?'

My dream would have been for the assistant to say: 'I wanted to tell you your car was being towed away but you made me wait so long that it's on the way to the pound now. Oh, and your hair is mad and those ankle boots look ridiculous.'

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stance · 06/10/2011 12:28

Hi All

I'm the Duct Tape Dummy woman on Queen of Frocks, and one of the core focus-group women they recruited.

Yes, that was MY body that Mary Portas was sneering at! Don't worry for my feelings - I thought it was hilarious, and entirely predictable. I think 99% of designers out there would have the same response. Hence the fashions we see...

You can see how a dummy ended up on her show here: penelopeelse.com/2011/10/queen-of-frocks-the-duct-tape-dummy-woman/.

Follow me at twitter.com/#!/penelopeelse, too, if you want to know next week exactly what I thought of Mary's collection.

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clangermum · 06/10/2011 16:48

Great link stance.

Didn't really understand how she got so far before she realised she needed a designer.

And the miscommunication when she went to the HoF meeting and they hadn't realised she wanted to sell stuff designed from scratch (albeit without a designer at that point). Or had I nodded off at that point and missed something? Thought I'd misunderstood what was happening, but then she did have her head in her hands so I figured she was realising the same thing.....

Loved the older guy working in HoF, was he called Spencer? The one with the moustache. You couldn't make him up.

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stance · 06/10/2011 22:48

Hi clangermum

Thank you!

Well, you might ask that! To some extent she was dealing with a rapidly-changing situation - I'm not sure she was even intending to do her own collection originally. I've discovered that documentary filming is a very messy affair - much seat-of-pants flying...

Also, because this took place over 16 months and more, there has been a huge amount to condense into a short time - perhaps not always best explained. My own contribution was several solid weeks of action, but you'll only see a few seconds, minutes at most.

I wasn't involved in the shop, of course - my interest was only ever in the clothes. I hope you'll all let me know what you think!

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mycatsaysach · 06/10/2011 22:57

i have seen that guy before - on the simpsons

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=simpsons+characters&start=268&num=10&hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1429&bih=714&tbm=isch&tbnid=fnmbpplzlbHoHM:&imgrefurl=entertainment.wikia.com/wiki/Top_Ten_The_Simpsons_characters&docid=FjvO33Rb_8RSeM&w=183&h=254&ei=DCSOTpjAN4qy0QXjs8Ei&zoom=1&chk=sbg&iact=hc&vpx=1077&vpy=141&dur=55&hovh=203&hovw=146&tx=72&ty=74&sqi=2&page=14&tbnh=154&tbnw=111&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:268" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=simpsons+characters&start=268&num=10&hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1429&bih=714&tbm=isch&tbnid=fnmbpplzlbHoHM:&imgrefurl=entertainment.wikia.com/wiki/Top_Ten_The_Simpsons_characters&docid=FjvO33Rb_8RSeM&w=183&h=254&ei=DCSOTpjAN4qy0QXjs8Ei&zoom=1&chk=sbg&iact=hc&vpx=1077&vpy=141&dur=55&hovh=203&hovw=146&tx=72&ty=74&sqi=2&page=14&tbnh=154&tbnw=111&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:268

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stance · 07/10/2011 10:02

Ah, here's an official clip from next week, where you can see the beginnings of a row...

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stance · 07/10/2011 10:02

Ah, here's an official clip from next week, where you can see the beginnings of a row...

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nickelbabe · 07/10/2011 10:05

I'm not sure about her clothing idea, but I would love her to come and help me.
(in general, I think she's great, but I think her dress style is a bit - MP, when you come to me, I didn't mean that comment )

My main problem is that I don't have someone else to help me (that I don't need to pay)
I can't raise business when I'm stuck in the shop all day, and I can't get out there because I have noone to cover the shop, and I can't employ someone becauseI don't have enough business to cover their wages

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epeems · 07/10/2011 10:29

The series seems really ill conceived and unconvincing. You don't really get the impression that Mary particularly wanted to open a shop and in the first episode we see her getting all het up before we've even been introduced to the concept. Then she tells us there's a gap in the market for 40 somethings when if for example you were to go to the fashion floor of John Lewis, all you would see is decent fashion for 40 somethings at similar prices to hers. I loved the fact she went up to the 3rd floor to bemoan the fact that the 60 something clothes weren't appropriate for her age group ignoring the fact that if she'd popped down to the 2nd floor that's where the 40 something clothes would have been? And why poach the Biba woman if she's doing exactly what Mary is moaning is not done, selling decent clothes to 40 somethings? It was a pile of toss. I'm sure Mary knows this herself.

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epeems · 07/10/2011 10:31

nickelbabe-do you sell onlione too?

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nickelbabe · 07/10/2011 10:31

I'm watchign it on 4OD and I'm actually a bit bored by it.
I don't like the way they keep chopping bits in from later in the show, like epeems says.

It's all very propaganda-ish.

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epeems · 07/10/2011 10:47

Oh and we were wondering what an old Clarks shoe box was doing casually perched behind Mary in one of the scenes, Clarks not really being what you have in mind when you think of Mrs Queen of Frocks. Then later in the programme there's a poster on their noticeboard advertising Mary Portas at Clarks. Cheeky Kah, I thought. Are they allowed to do that sort of product placement?

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nickelbabe · 07/10/2011 10:48

she loves shift dresses because of the look and simplicity.

great, most women don't, because noone is the same on the top as the bottom.

shift dresses look so very bad on me, because I have tiny weeny boobs (and chest) and huge hips.
and one of those other women in her show had massive bazunkas, but small at the bottom, so a shift dress would make her look like she had a big belly, bum and hips