Mary, Queen of Shops - in praise of independent shops

Written By Helen Leslie

Supporting the British high street and fabulous makers

Last weekend was fun! For my birthday my dear friend Natalie (Natmaster to me) treated me to tickets to see Mary Portas speak at the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival about her new book I Shop, Therefore I Am. I’ve read several of Mary’s books including Shop Girl, which precedes this new book, continuing here with the Harvey Nicks days onwards. I have recommended her book Work Like A Woman several times to people as it is such a good read that really ‘gets’ how women work and how incredibly valuable women are to the workplace. It’s not at all anti-men, but examines the differing approaches we take and skills we bring.

People know Mary Portas as the indomitable force behind TV programmes like Mary Queen of Shops, working to revitalise the British high street and reinventing charity shops. But her career spans decades of experience in the retail industry, from the early days when starting out, creating field-leading, attention-grabbing shop windows for Harvey Nichols, to the running of the business design transformation agency Portas, broadcasting, writing, consulting and more.

Basically there’s not a lot that Mary Portas doesn’t know about retail, design, customers, creating transformational change, business, the history and impact of policy, funding and more on Britain’s towns and cities over decades.

All these areas remind me a lot of my time during my degree in Fashion Promotion & Illustration in Epsom, where a lot of time was spent in London, gazing in the posh shop windows, looking at fashion brands and their collections, and later working with various lifestyle magazines. The cocktail created by shaking up fashion, retail, design, merchandising, art, illustration, commerce, writing, PR is a very exciting blend and one that incorporates a lot of things I love.

It’s no secret that the British high street has a fight on its hands. Times are hard, people have less disposable income, there are a lot of scary things going on in the world which makes us much less likely to spend on frivolous things (not that shops only have frivolous things of course!). Mary talked about acknowledging that - yes times are difficult for shops, brands need to have a clear proposition or they die, policies that past governments brought in have caused huge change to the high streets, especially in terms of encouraging out of town retail giants which has taken footfall away and left a lot of empty shops in towns.

The importance of ‘Hope’

However she made a point of saying that we can have Hope. We can always make change on our own level, vote with our money and use our hope for the future to develop the high street in the ways we want. There’s a huge sea change going on in terms of independent shopping and the ‘Shop Small’ movement. Running concurrently is the rise of charity shops and the reuse/recycle movements. Because we all have too much ‘stuff’, having been encouraged to consume more, more, more over decades, the need to buy more sustainably and make more considered purchases is more important than ever, and catching on with a broad sector of the public. It’s no longer naff to shop in charity shops, savvy buying is the way forward. Upcycling is a skill and incorporating secondhand items into your wardrobe is brilliant on so many levels. The satisfaction of finding an amazing bargain can’t be beat! Keeping clothes, accessories etc out of landfill when they have so much life left in them is incredibly important. Rejecting the fast fashion slop that is produced in its millions by ultra-cheap brands is a political and environmental statement. We don’t want rubbish that has a short lifespan and can’t be recycled, created in horrible conditions that does not benefit the people who have to make the millions of garments - just for us to buy something for £3 and discard after a few wears because it’s quickly made in cheap fabric and can’t withstand regular wear, doesn’t hang well or falls apart/bobbles ridiculously.

Hope/Nope

I happened to be wearing my Hope necklace (genuinely - I didn’t know Mary would be talking about Hope as a concept!) by local Exmouth illustrator Rosie Johnson who makes amongst many other things this fab Hope/Nope reversable necklace.

It’s a great necklace for making a statement, even if it’s ‘not in the mood today - nope’! (I usually wear it on the Nope side, haha!)

When we met Mary at the book signing, she loved the Hope necklace and loved the fact you could turn it round for Nope when you want to make that statement! She thought it was hilarious and great fun.

The rise of the independents

My hope for the high street is hugely encouraged by the growth of small independent shops. They are popping up in every town, creating energetic, exciting, individual, beautifully curated retail experiences and importantly bringing together and creating new COMMUNITIES.

In a small independent retail outlet, you’ll find a person bringing together many individual or small independent businesses and makers’ products all under one roof, and every single decision to sell someone’s creations, to mention their name, to show their brand to customers alongside other complementary brands, creates a butterfly effect which ripples through an entire community. There’s a community created between the makers themselves, between makers and customers, between the shop and the public. One business benefits another business, supports another person, and so on.

Some independent shops incorporate cafe areas into the shop to further create a whole experience and focal point to encourage community. Some are bookshops with cafe areas too (heaven). Others run workshops, to gather like-minded people for an experience they’ll enjoy and remember, again creating the network between the workshop participants, the maker and the shop.

After all, doesn’t life feel better when you have a pleasant experience in a shop? You’ve just found the perfect gift for your friend’s birthday which you know she’s going to love, you’ve had a little chat with the owner, and you go on your way. Items from small businesses are packaged so beautifully they’re like receiving a birthday present for yourself! It’s nothing like the item just shoved in a cheap plastic bag with a basic label then shoved into a box and delivered to you by the massive brands (you know the one I mean, it sells everything and delivers very quickly).

It’s an experience, it creates feeling (a positive one). Every purchase from a small business is an investment. You’ve invested in a lovely item, however small or whatever it is. By making this purchase decision you’ve invested in the makers’ time and skills.

By spending money in a small independent shop, you are literally helping to put food on the table of both the shop owner and the makers that fill the shop with fabulous things. You are supporting many careers at once. You are voting with your money for the things that you want to see in your town.

Shop small in these fab independents!

Here I’ve gathered together some of my favourite independent retailers, some I’m stocked at, but not all - I haven’t been to all of these in person but I love their vibe, so check them out if you can! You can shop online with several of them too so if you’re not local you can still support them.

Add any more independents you love in the comments and get sharing!

If you want to buy Mary’s book

The link to buy the book I Shop, Therefore I Am that I have included is bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores :)

I heart illustration

The cover and book illustration is by Sara Singh - I absolutely love her work.

It also makes me think of Camilla Dixon who taught our fashion illustration at uni (I LOVED it), and also David Downton, well known amazing fashion illustrator.

Helen Leslie
Next

So, Art Club - how’s it going?