Live webchat with Mary Portas on Monday 10 May (1-2pm). PLUS, if you're over 40, a chance to take part in her next C4 series

[HelenMumsnet]

Retail guru and television presenter Mary Portas will be joining us for a live webchat on Monday 10 May from 1-2pm to discuss shopping, style and her brand new fashion crusade for women over 40.

As a mother of two, Mary juggles a television career and writing a weekly shop review column in the Telegraph with running Yellowdoor, her successful retail-branding and communications agency.

Mary's about to start filming a new Channel 4 TV series that will follow her quest to fill the gap in the fashion market for fabulous, forty-plus women.

She particularly wants to know:

• Do you think your fashion needs are served by high-street retailers?
  
  
• When you shop for fashion, is it as fun and easy an experience as it was when you were younger or do you find it a trial?
  
  
• Is there a brand on the high street that gives you what you want?
  
  
• What are the brands that are failing you?
  
  
• Would you rather see a picture of a woman your own age marketing the brands you buy or are you happy to see youthful, perfect faces?
  
  Mary knows shops and shopping better than anyone and she'll be ready to answer all of your shopping quandaries, from where to find the best service to where to shop for the best one-offs.
  
  Television cameras will be following Mary as she takes part in the live webchat. Your comments may be used in the television show but we won't identify you.
  
  As part of the television series, Mary is also looking for opinionated women who will be part of her focus group, advising her on anything from where to buy the best-fitting dress to road-testing whole fashion collections.
  
  This will involve a number of days filming in London over the next six months and will cover travel expenses for these days.
  
  If you're interested in being involved please email [email protected] with your name, your MN nickname, your contact details and why you think you should be part of the show.
  
  Thanks, MNHQ

[DavidHameron]

Holy grail: fantastic jeans for apple-shaped post-baby muffin-topped jelly bellies...

[comixminx]

I am not really interested in fashion so at first thought this thread was not much to do with me - but actually I do like to dress in stuff that is comfortable, interesting, long-lasting, practical, and looks good on me, so I suppose I am interested in clothes, just not in the fashion industry per se!

Like someone further up-thread, I find the throwaway nature of the fashion industry to be distressing and wrong from a green point of view - I'd much much rather buy something good quality, versatile, and long-lasting than 'on-trend'. This means I don't go shopping for clothes all that often and what I do have I wear in reasonably heavy rotation. Over the past couple of years I have been buying clothes from the internet - Charles Tyrwhitt and some Boden - because the colours are interesting and the styles work well, and I only need to buy one or two pieces rather than feeling that to make it worthwhile I should buy a slew of stuff.

Some niggles with high street fashion: I always hate the fact that women's clothes are short on pockets, so when I find trousers or skirts that have them I am quite tempted! And like GoingPostal above, I too am petite without (nowadays) being particularly slim - I too have to get things altered (or latterly I have taken to rolling up the hems and making like it's a purposeful choice...) Another niggle is that I vastly prefer natural fabrics which aren't always that easy to find (another reason to shop on the internet, where the textile is mentioned up-front). And finally - when I was looking for something to wear to a wedding a couple of years ago, I was horrified how impossible it was to find 'grown-up' clothes - it was all short skirts, revealing clothes, party-wear... even in the department stores. That was actually in America and I probably just didn't know which shops to target, but it is something that happens over here too.

[hellymelly]

AAArgh.I used to love clothes shopping although I lived in vintage as I had no money at all and now I am older and have a bit more money I can't find anything I want to buy,or at least anything that isn't Marni or Margaret Howell. I still live in vintage but I'm in my 40s and I have to be more cautious about all my lovely Grannyesque bits and bobs now I am virtually granny aged.I also have very small children so I need easy everyday stuff.My shape is different,I'm not as thin and I have a post-two-c-sections tummy.I'm busty anyway but still breastfeeding so I am a ff cup and that rules out all those easy smocky shirts that everyone from White Company to Jigsaw t seems to market for 40 something women.I also have moved from central London to The Back of Beyond (TM),so I have no High st to speak of,and have to rely on mail order which is a pain.I don't know who is failing me,Jigsaw seem a bit more boring than they used to be ,I haven't been in Zara since I left London so I don't know what they are like now.I just hardly buy anything anymore,its too depressing. I have a small independant boutique about 45 minutes drive away that I like,as they are helpful and friendly and the shop is well stocked,I have bought some things from them.That is the nearest I've got to High Street shopping in a looong time.

[MaryAnnSingleton]

I love Mary Portas !
I am well over 40 (oh ok,51) and feel that fashion is pretty stagnant really for my age group - I tend to dress pretty much as I did in my 30s and 40s - ie. in an unfussy way so that I don't immediately look as though I'm heading for the slacks and Ecco shoes look. I wear Gap, Monsoon, Boden and Great Plains mostly -I avoid colour as I don't want to look as though I'm trying too hard to be different -frankly it makes me feel uncomfortable. As an art student I dressed mostly in vintage stuff or interesting punky things - we plundered the antiques markets in Kings Road.
I don't want to not be noticed -as women of a certain age do 'disappear' but am afraid too to step out of my comfort zone.

[hellymelly]

Oh Maryann those King's rd markets were great weren't they? I still have the most beautiful evening dress and coat fit for Carole Lombard that I got there for £30.

[MaryAnnSingleton]

!! I still have the black crepe 50s dress I bought from somewhere on Kings Rd for my degree show - does anyone remember the shop in Covent Garden called Detail ? -jewellery and stuff

[MaryPortas]

test

[Sweeedes]

littlelapin - I used to go to Hyper Hyper in the early 80s. Wasn't there also a shop called Che Guevara close by?

[Sweeedes]

littlelapin -

[BoffinMum]

An unusual question but I'd really like Mary to answer this for us. Like most people over 40, when I was growing up and learning proper dressmaking at school (as we did then in the days before textile technology) you had Misses patterns for younger women and then patterns that were subtly different for the more mature lady who had had children. This respected women's different stages of life.

It seems to me that manufacturers have abandoned the notion that women's bodies change over time, and therefore we are now required to fit one of six fairly precise high street sizes (8-10-12-14-16-18) all based on the same pattern, but with 2 inches added on indiscriminately as the sizes go up. We end up with silly waistlines and bustlines that don't take into account our different, changing proportions after childbearing. Men's clothes seem to cater for them at all stages of life, however. They have a lot more choice of things like chest, sleeve length, collar size, leg length and so on - many more permutations.

Does this match with what Mary sees in the industry ? (I actually see it as something of a feminist issue, this denial of the female body post-childbirth).

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

I would like advice on eher to go to find good quality clothes for the larger lady. I don't want to wear stuff that my mother wears but really struggle. Monsoon does my size but is expensive. It doesn't help that I live in a rural area. The weight is coming off but I am bored of wearing linen trousers. So any help for websites, shops etc would be greatly appreciated.

[Penthesileia]

Mary: do you think it is important that shops provide transparent information about how they source their clothes? Ie. are they ethical?

I made a decision this year not to buy any new clothes (so am probably not the target audience for this webchat ) - so far, so good - but when I start buying again, I'd like to buy ethically, as far as I can. It is very difficult to get clear information from high street retailers about whether their clothes are made in countries that uphold at least minimum standards for working conditions, pay, etc.

[JustineMumsnet]

OMG just realised I'm wearing Ugg boots .

[ginghamgiraffe]

at Justine of Vivienne Westwood fame in UGGS

I have a question Mary, (loved your penhaligons column on Sat but was a bit SQUASHED by your one about White Stuff earlier in the year as it has become my go-to place of late)

We're going to a wedding in June in a marquee - it's bound to be cold, so reluctant to get out my winter legs, but don't particularly want to wear winter tights - any suggestions? I'm 43, 5ft 2 and fairly petite.

Thanks in advance

[dawntigga]

Ooooh BoffinMum hello

NotSeenHerInAWhileCarryOnNowTiggaxx

[LoveBeingAHungParliament]

Mary

I am 34 this month and I have realised that since my dd was born 2 years ago i have hardley bought any clothes for myself, what i ahve bought is crappy make do and mostly supermarket , as i packed away most of my pre baby clothes when i was pg and have now realised i can't/don't want to wear them again i am a little stuck. What basics do i need and what key little bits can i get to make them this season?

btw i loved your tv series, any more coming?

[GeorginaWorsley]

I would like to see a High street cheaper version of the sort of clothes Whistles,Cos,White Company do.
Classy classics in good fabrics,no horrible cheap colours that dominate in the High street now.
I would like well fitting trousers in various lengths,cardigans,long vests,simple but stylish dresses.
Plus accessories,although I usually find great necklaces in the likes of Wallis and Marks.

[coffeeMonster]

What do you think about over 40s in Denim?

I have been reading a lot about double denim but only seen pics of David Beckham
It puts me in mind of Billy Ray Cyrus tbh

I love my jeans but am tempted to buy a denim dress/ denim shirt. V nervous of looking too 'over-denim' Would you avoid anything other than jeans if you're over 40?

[dawntigga]

Am mahoosively excited at only 10 minutes to go am stuffing The Cub with biscuits to keep him quiet!

WondersIfTheBiscuitsMayRunOutTiggaxx

[Gleeb]

Were you really happy with the changes and improvements that came out of the Mary Queen of Charity Shops programmes? It seemed to me that you were originally aiming higher but had to lower your sights owing to various factors (staff, donations etc).

P.S. Loving your work.

[chimchar]

this is my second post on here, but my first was just a comment!

i would love a nice, casual brown soft leather everyday across the body bag. i don't have a big budget as far as bags are concerned (about £100) but am wondering if it is worth saving up and investing in a posh one, or does bag fashion move that quickly i'll need to update it in the next couple of years...

[champagnesupernova]

ginghamgiraffe - are you me?! I was rather hurt by the white stuff column, too as I've become rather reliant upon it (esp since having less time to shop now I have DC)

Mary, this is my problem too.

I am not over 40 but hope this doesn't mean I can't participate here.

I am nearly 33 and have a 2 year old.
On a good day I'm a 12/14 but I'm tall so can sometimes hide divert attention away from some of the muffintop.

I find that so few of the stores on the high street cater for me. New Look, Primark, topshop mostly too young
Can sometimes get some bits in Dorothy P's

So I end up relying on catalogues (CF comment about White Stuff) and I am indeed guilty of being a Boden-wearing MNer and I buy a fair bit from Long Tall Sally too.

I watch the TV progs that SuSylvester is referring to and I just think that the women can't go round wearing that stuff DAY TO DAY - I sure as hell can't wear heels every day.

I don't wear brooches or belts that are just slung round trews (and don't actually hold things up), or scarves because they feel "affected" - I don't want to look like the girls in grazia but I don't want to feel a frump either.

What hope is there for Mumsy, catalogue ridden me?!