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

JumeirahJane-yes I was bitterly disappointed in the shopping in Dubai.Same old stuff-different currency

I avoid anything without sleeves -unless you can wear something to cover up- I've always hated my 'Victorian' arms as my best friend calls them - mind you,looking back at old pictures they were much nicer than I'd imagined.
I don't want to be in my 80s and not bothering about clothes - my granny always looked amazingly good in her late 80s, but my MIL tends to wear beige from head to toe. I would be so depressed !

I'm rapidly approaching my fortieth at the end of this month and have developed quite an agricultural style. I live in a rural area (was born in London) and feel I've lost touch with fashion and style. I go shopping and come home with things for everyone except myself. I'm an expert in children's fashion and live out my chic fantasies on my 6 yo DD who has a killer wardrobe and immaculate hair.
Outside of London, why is everywhere so samey? I swear to god, if I'm confronted by another polyester chiffon blouse touted as smart/evening dress, I think I'll barf. I don't feel any different than I did at 16 and I'm almost the same size (just under 5'2", around 8st with a 25" waist). I shop in places where teenagers buy their clothes and fluctuate between feeling mumsy (when I wear 'smart' clothes) and inappropriately youthfully dressed. I feel like people are looking at my wrinkly face and wondering why I'm wearing a Hollister T-shirt when I should so obviously be wearing something in sparkly polyester chiffon.

Mary, I think I speak for us all when I say it is such a change to be listened to. We have been patronised and fleeced for so long. I am feeling quite emotional here over the keyboard.

oh yes, finding dresses for women with boobs is a nightmare, as sfx says they are all so matronly

summer dresses are worse because they're all so short and while I'll brave short skirts in opaques my naked 48 year old knees should not be seen except on the beach ( just on the knee is fine)

or thin straps so you cant wear a bra

or polyester

or boden horrific prints

I am top half in Gap and bottom half in Zara jeans btw

I also find that the Brits tend to take to fashion fads much more than the women on the continent.

If something is fashionable, be it a colour, cut or style then it is EVERYWHERE.

And if it happens to be something that does not suit everyone eg. leggings and tunics then you are pretty stuffed.

A couple of years back almost every dress was bias cut - totally unflattering for me with my curves. I need fitted clothes, that skim over my curves.

God yes, width fitting shoes. My nemesis. Last year I salivated over some ox blood red wedges in Clarks - they were too narrow by far. They don't do widths in normal shoes. So I took my money to M&S (which I hate in many ways), and bought three pairs of wide fitting patent shoes in there instead.

I want to go into a shop and find the trousers together (for instance), with an assistant who knows 'oh, those are looking lovely on women your shape, but those come up narrower on the thigh, and I don't think they'd work for you'

SySylvester: I think you're right and wanted fashionable glasses - otherwise I look too bookish

Go for a classic sunglass shape that will last - find some and get lenses put in.

What you're talking about is women who want to make a fashion statement but not sure what it is so try and go a bit zany and dye their hair and wear really odd tights etc. I want to provide an alternative

Boden prints are to be avoided - specially anything so self consciously 'wacky' as the hotchpotch things..ick.
What about broad shoulders too - things aren't cut decently to accomodate them.

LOL at Boden mafia.
My views on yummy mummy uniforms are widely known on MN. bring on the Top Gear tank, I say.

I'd like some nice fabrics too. Whatever happened to fine wool trousers, half-lined on the high street? No I don't want fecking polyester or baggy linen: I'd like a bit of structure now I'm, er, old and I can afford it please.

Styleandbeauty threads are often bemoaning that we simply don't know where to shop anymore, not just for over 40s but I think also over 30s too. I'm not yet 40 but feel that the high street has completely passed me by.

Basically, once you are old enough to be a bit scared of all of the pounding music in Top Shop, and a bit worried that you look a bit cheap in flimsy Dorothy Perkins bits, but Next is too trashy and Jigsaw too blah and Boden too.. well.. bodeny. Reiss and French Connection all very well for stick insects. Comptoir des Cotonnieres lovely stuff but some odd colours. I find clothes shopping incredibly stressful and depressing.

And I do have a muffin top. I don't mind the term, because it's blatantly true. (Muffins contributed to it, as well as a baby). I have needed new jeans for many many months now but I know that the shopping experience will be too depressing so I am putting it off and putting it off. The idea of a shop where they actually look after you and don't just expect you to slog round and round and round desperately hunting for non-low-cut jeans... I'd spend some serious money.

But it's no good just having an assistant who knows stuff - you have to trust them too, and believe that they're going to do their best for you, not just out to make sales.

Mary your hair always looks amazing!

My question is where can i buy well-cut comfortable, elegant, practical basics?

I don't enjoy shoppng any more. I never have the right amount of time to get round the shops and try things on. I've two little boys 2 & 4 years. My figure is not the same as in my twenties either! I search for well-cut clothes,comfortable and just can't seem to find anything I like on the high street anymore. I used to swear by whistles for basics but they've gone all strange these days. I buy the odd bit from Uniqlo, Cos and Paul and Joe sister, but am still lacking in good, strong, comfortable chic basics.

I watched the film Coco Chanel at the weekend and was struck by how maverick she was reinventing womens wear to be comfortable, elegant and glamourous. I think lots of designers need to start making more clothes like this for busy mothers!

Tara x

That's true MmeL e.g. purple, last season.

And, Mary, if you can do ANYTHING to break people free from the tyranny of leggings and tunics (see MN threads ad infinitum), you really will deserve sainthood.

Mary if statistics say that 47% of women are over a size 16, why can't find anything "on trend" for my size 20 top and size 18 bottom on the High Street?

I have money to spend on quality items but I just can't do it!!

oh god kristina...am of very "ample" nork, and can't ever find anything in the summer which shows no cleavage (looks too much like an arse crack ) or that will hide my hefty but pretty bra straps....

i think in short mary...we want nicely cut clothes for real women....

you'll get wool trousers, half lined in jaegar sale, david

Hands up if anything you are wearing feels uncomfortable at the moment, ladies?

JumeirahJane - I agree with an awful lot of what you say. Because they think the customers want new new new all the time they're changing product every 2 weeks

We've lost the fashion season - and newness being every 4 months not 2 weeks

Plus rents so high on high street so no independents can make it.

hear hear domesticslattern

OMG I have been that person Mar described, dyed hair and strange tights. Mary we/I need you!!!

Tarabear, yes Whistles, WTF happened to Whistles?