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

As someone who works in retail, do you think that too much pressure is put on women to look good all the time, and would you not agree that the same pressure is not put on men?

(always love your shoes, btw)

This is the best webchat all year. It's practically therapy.

whistles is trying to be topshop or allsaints

Pickled monkey:

Basics are vitally important and that's something I'm considering. It's about quality material so they don't shrink after a couple of washes - so worth paying a bit more for quality, because classics will last

I think Cos are doing good basics, but are quite pricey and I'd like to be a bit cheaper

Whoever said Parisien style is spot on - I felt decidedly frumpy in the gym changing room the other day as I changed out of the jeans-and-t-shirt with the youngest DDs whilst elegant-mum slipped on a beautifully fitting slim but not tight skirt, cap sleeve top and cardigan - then she spoke to her (elegant) child in French - mystery solved! I would say the style I like the look but not price of is a bit Agnes B, a bit Ralph Lauren (the non-logo stuff, subtle classics with enough style in the cut to look chic rather than old-lady)

I will buy from George's value range as I can't see the point in buying anything else as shopping is such a grind - esp with a 1 year old.

Boff, nothing I'm wearing right now is uncomfortable as I live and die in yoga pants and t-shirts or jeans and t-shirts. I will occasionally go out out but I usually wear something I made.

LuckyReallySheCanSewTiggaxx

what size do Cos go up to?

LOL at BoffinMum
You are RIGHT

• Do you think your fashion needs are served by high-street retailers?
  No. I'm 5ft 4in, size 16 on the top, 12 on the bottom, and apple shaped. Nothing fits me.

• 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?
  The only shops I can get anything in are Laura Ashley, Jigsaw, Phase 8. But I can't afford them and so resort to ill fitting clothes at Tescos mostly.

• Is there a brand on the high street that gives you what you want?

• What are the brands that are failing you?
  All of them.

• 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?

I hate seeing young models. What's wrong with the world that we have present skinny youth just to sell clothes to the rest of us?

See, now, I don't long to be elegant; I long to be a 42yo version of 'a teeny bit edgy'. It's a bit sad but there you go: desperately hanging onto youth in my head. Unfortunately it's pretty difficult to pull off these days for fear of going horribly wrong. I'd like the option though. I was the girl who made my own school disco dress out of green kagoule material, and zips on the shoulders worn with a silver face . Now it's all bloody M&S fucking linen... My mum wore Mary Quant; she too would like a shop like yours for a 67 yo...

The hair thing is interesting: we all love your hair and your look. When I go in and ask for 'edgy' they see fat old mum in baggy linen trews and decide what I'm allowed to have.

Nobody's listening.

Unless one is supremely confident, already dressed that way

Yes, you have to trust them, but I hope Mary would staff her shops with ladies (obv, she'd have a flexible working policy so that women in their 30's/40's/50's would flock there) who were trained in their stock, and empowered to be able to say what they like.

I'd like to be able to buy quality clothes too - I can afford it, and want to buy basics that will last a few years and look good for all of that time. Same with shoes - I won't pay mega wonga for uncomfortable CL or JC shoes that won't get the wear, but would def consider it for beautiful, comfortable, stylish work shoes that I can walk in easily and will keep going

I don't mind paying a bit more for quality but there is a limit - my budget is top-end M&S maximum, not Jigsaw/Whistles/Hobbs.

cos have fab clothes which don't suit women with boobs

even the staff in there with norks ( who are 22 years old and gorgeous) have trouble finding their uniform

I am with HouseMum on that. You wouldn't see a French woman in a corduroy lime green Boden skirt with a matching spotted cardie.

I wonder if the reason so many of us struggle with our weight is because the world around us here in the UK is so utterly frumpy anyway that it hardly matters. Is that too outrageous a statement?

PS: I live in pyjamas mostly because I can by them at Primark and strangely they fit. but I have to buy a size 18 to get them to fit me all over. So either I hit the playground with my pjs on, or I look rubbish post-2 kids and aged 42. Sadly it's mostly the latter.

that rules cos out for me then

Basics, yes please.

If anyone can tell me where I can buy a scooped neck white T-shirt with three quarter length sleeves in a heavyweight cotton which doesn't shrink/ bag after two washes and which isn't so thin it's see through and which is 100% cotton and which is long enough to cover my tummy, I would be very much obliged. Because I have tried about seven different brands recently and no joy.

Mary, someone has just leaned across in the office where I am taking my lunch at the moment and said, Oh Mary Portas, isn't she getting married soon? if so many congrats!!

No I think the UK has the coolest fashion in the world; it just doesn't spread out to 'ordinary' women v much. Far better quirky Britishness for me than the bloody European 'Uniform'.

MadameLindt: When you really look at style icons like Michelle Obama, Carla Bruni they're not really slaves to fashion, they're just extremely stylish. I want to encourage the over 40's to be more like that. We should be talking about how to dress, not how to dress in the look NOW

pmsl at ' corduroy lime green Boden skirt with a matching spotted cardie'

Mary, what do you think about the fact that sizes in shops are all different? I don't have time to try things on, and it's a big problem because when you buy online, you have to keep sending stuff back. I bought a coat in Monson and a dress at the same time. Both size 14, the dress fits, the coat was too small. What's that about?

Anyone else feel that changing rooms should have a sign on them that says:

20 somethings quite welcome but everyone else abandon hope ye who enter here!

Nope?JustMeThenTiggaxx

Cos no good if you have boobs. I can confirm this. I got all excited when it opened here and then... nope.

I don't mind a bit of fun stuff though - I actually quite like my appliqued boden skirt from the sales a few years back, but with just a plain top and sandals, I don't dress head-to-toe in "wacky" prints. Go too far down the "classic" route and it's more like 60-year-old fashion. Classic cuts with the basic tops/trousers/skirts but a nod to current trends in detail or colour. Inspired by the latest fashion not slavishly following it.

Domesticslattern You're absolutely right, see my post on French chic - how Chanel pared it down to beautiful stylish clothes, grown up clothes for women.