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

[CatherineHMumsnet]

Does this link to Mary's pic work?

bit.ly/bg3nNM

[BoffinMum]

Mary, I am worried your shop will be too small, and the whole of the UK will descend, and everyone will be too busy to be properly nice to us and we will still get that sick feeling when we're about to spend £300 on clothes but aren't sure if it's going to have been a success. Like me last week in John Lewis.

I did use the word therapy.

[MaryPortas]

Houseman: I still think Gap does really good basics (and are called Gap because they identified a gap in the market). I think Cos do casual well, but not smart, and I think if you really search Zara - if you can be bothered. There are pockets, but nowhere I think that's where I'm going to go to first.

[GrumpyOldHorsewoman]

Believe me, Mary, Hollister is the epitome of fashion where I live!

I want to look like a laydeee, without feeling as though I've nicked my Mum's clothes.

[CMOTdibbler]

Could you add to the list of requirements for your staff, that they actually want to help their customers - not look at them in distain when they go in, no matter what they look like.

I love your outfit - my customers would die if I dressed like that though !

[brimfull]

lol boffin
and we'll al be saying
that's def a Mary outfit

[MaryPortas]

Fave biscuit btw - rich tea with butter and a proper Walkers shortbread - a butter fiend.

[brimfull]

rich tea with butter!!
digestive better with butter

[squeaver]

Agree with you on Cos/Gap/Zara.

[BessieBoots]

Ooooh digestive with peanut butter...

[Housemum]

wow I had a sex change and didn't notice - must stop wearing these jeans...

[domesticslattern]

Gap T-shirts are diabolical quality.



Photo is fab BTW.

[Housemum]

I like Zara but it seems to be designed for shorter people (with small feet) - I'm not hugely tall, 5' 6" with size 8 feet, but I feel like a giant in there as the arms are too short and as a size 14 I usually have to get size XL.

[BoffinMum]

Mary, can you have a go at the glossies as well, because they are terrible for making us feel inadequate.

[MaryPortas]

gggirl I've been doing this for years so have developed my own style, but it is about simple rules.

Everything comes down to confidence and I think we've been knocked by a youth obsessive industry - it's not even celebrating beauty it's celebrating youth. I just want to celebrate beautiful clothes that celebrate women not just girls.

[squeaver]

But the problem with the fashion press is that they are such SLAVES to the big chains and also to their own lack of imagination - see all the posts earlier in the thread about "workwear", "the perfect winter coat" etc etc.

And I LOVE fashion mags. They just frustrate the hell out of me.

[BoffinMum]

I have to say I felt the same when I was 20 and was a size 10/12. I am not sure it is a youth thing, I think it's a contempt for customers thing.

[Housemum]

Nicest bits in my wardrobe at the mom were from Phildar in France - a lovely black bobbly wool jacket, and a long sleeved sheer top that is long enough to cover the stupid gap when I can't find jeans that go up to my waist!

(Thank you M&S for the "Roma" jeans but please make the same waist height in straight as well as bootcut)

[JackieNo]

Maybe we all need to be out there customising our own clothes - mind you, my sewing skills are nil. Or at the very least getting things altered so they fit us properly.

[brimfull]

sneaky question

is the rule that horizontal stripes making you look bigger a load of crap?

[OurLadyOfPerpetualSupper]

And so much bloody polyester everywhere!
This may have been covered, and I know there are others on MN who feel this way - but this cheap and uncomfortable fabric seems to be creeping in to higher end high street shops nowadays.

I walked out of LK Bennet this winter gutted after refusing to buy a totally flattering, perfect party dress that cost £225 for polyester.

And, having boobs, finding a flattering dress doesn't come easily to me.

[champagnesupernova]

Possibly JackieNo but 1/2 the prob is that the clothes aren't good enough quality to stand up to altering, innit?

[brimfull]

i wouldn't care what a garment was made of as long as it suited and fit me

[JackieNo]

True, champagnesupernova . Though if you knew something would then fit you properly, maybe you'd be prepared to spend more money on it in the first place.