Interview: Mary Portas on her Save the Children charity shops

This success story began back in 2009, when the country was in the grip of the credit crunch and there was an explosion of charity shops on the high street — their worth couldn’t have been lower. After Portas spent six months working with Save the Children’s Orpington branch for her BBC2 series Mary, Queen of Charity Shops (and the shop tripled its takings), she was inspired by the very same old dears who were on the receiving end of her whip-cracking. “They had a sense of duty,” she says. “They would turn up every day, same time, and do their thing. It was gorgeous. Having spent my life helping leading brands sell more, I thought, ‘What am I giving back?’”

Later that year, she trialled Mary’s Living & Giving Shops for Save the Children as a pop-up in Westfield London, making an extraordinary £109,000 in three weeks (compare that to the average British charity shop’s weekly turnover of £1,994, according to the Charity Retail Association). Since then, the numbers have soared, raising £11m for Save the Children. “They’re real businesses,” she says.

How on earth did she do it? Well, you can’t transform a bargain basement into a vintage boutique without a good supply of treasure. For that, Portas admits to shelving her shame. “If you ask people to give, they invariably do. That’s what I love, and I don’t care about asking.” She approached both brands and celebrities, and now counts more than 400 labels as donors, including Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Bella Freud, House of Holland and Diane von Furstenberg. Meanwhile, the stores are a celebrity addict’s dream, with, for example, Victoria Beckham donating 25 outfits from her then three-year-old daughter Harper’s wardrobe in 2015, raising more than £12,000. When Jane Shepherdson stepped down as Whistles CEO last year to go travelling, she “emptied her wardrobe” and sent the contents to Mary’s Living & Giving. Sharleen Spiteri has “handed in a lot of stuff”, as have Florence Welch and Fearne Cotton, along with many other locals. “I put the shops in high-disposable-income areas for a reason,” Portas says. “Most of those people can donate and not think about putting it on eBay.” You may well find the Portas family’s own pieces in-store, as she will “shamelessly” clear out her daughter Verity’s room; even her wife Melanie Rickey’s wardrobe isn’t safe, with Portas once swiping a pair of Rickey’s Christopher Kane boots (“I thought, ‘She’s never worn those!’”), only for Rickey to see them in the shop window. “I had to give the shop a pair of mine instead.”

Portas capitalises on celebrity, not least her own: “Of course, that’s where the marketing is. We put it on social media, get the press onto it, do lots of signings. It’s win-win. It’s good for me and good for the world.” The virtuous circle doesn’t stop there. “Get a good level of stuff and you get people coming in to see what’s been dropped off, as well as young people who want to work there.” Examples of amazing booty are a brand-new Alexander McQueen kilt dress, complete with original tags (mine for £50 from the Islington branch), Lanvin court shoes for £80, and a £60 Balmain jacket; the Westbourne Grove store prides itself on being the place to pick up a pristine Chanel 2.55 bag. Portas’s concept has both revolutionised the charity fashion shopper (she’s now one herself), and the volunteers. “I went into one of my shops and found a 28-year-old City banker working there. That’s when I knew it was working.”

To ramp up the boutique feel, she applies principles borrowed from high-end retail (it’s her specialist subject, after all). Think good service, decent design and glamorous displays, a far cry from shabby mannequins wearing pensioners’ cast-offs. “We invest in making the shops beautiful,” she says. “We have candles, and music playing, and we get local artists to decorate them.” No two shops are the same — she didn’t want a chain, because “chains just roll out the same thing”. Instead, each draws on local inspiration. For example, in Islington, once home to Gainsborough Pictures where Hitchcock made some of his films, the shop features a secret cinema, while Kew’s shopfront is inspired by the Palm House at the Botanic Gardens. All host events and parties — she wants them to be regarded as community hubs. “Why make it a dump?” she says. “If you value the fact that someone comes in with £10, which will make a difference to a child’s life, then you need to make that person feel valuable.”

Just as Portas has changed the fate of charity retail, so, in turn, it has changed her own life. Four years ago, she completely rebranded her agency, Portas, to be more aligned with the culture of Mary’s Living & Giving. Could the “tough world of marketing and communications” work around a philosophy of giving, she wondered. The result? “It’s never been better.” Abandoning a traditional masculine business approach — profit, competition, “You’re fired” — she instilled a more modern, feminine MO, based on trust, respect, kindness and emotion. She talks about the “G spot — moving from greed and gain to a place where people, certainly Millennials and Generation Z, are really thinking about our world and what we do with it”.

The future, she says, “will be the Patagonias and the Toms — brands that are thinking about how we live”. The future for Mary’s Living & Giving, meanwhile, will see its expansion into other big cities (currently, the Edinburgh store is the only one outside London) plus more pop-ups and, “one day”, an entire department store with fashion, home, food, vinyl and books. Knowing her, that day may not be so distant.

The virtuous circle has clearly drawn Portas into its gravitational pull, and it’s apparent that she has left her ball-breaking days behind. “Putting joy and respect at the centre of my work is the fuel that makes me happy. Financial success is the by-product. It’s a simple philosophy, and one that I wish I had discovered years ago.” It’s never too late for the rest of us.

Mary’s Living & Giving Shop at Liberty of London, August 14-31

Hair and make-up: Celine Nonon