Heres to You Mrs Robinson...

Mary Portas is my retail crush. Her career in retail started off in visual merchandising, and her big break came  at Harvey Nichols, where her creativity and passion were credited with turning around the brand's fortunes -with exceptional window displays (that became part of guided tours of London no less), the championing of young designers, and of course getting all that free publicity on 'Absolutely Fabulous'.. She was invited to join the Board of HN before even turning 30, and eventually left in 1997 to launch her very successful retail consultancy Yellow Door. And the rest as they say, is history.

She is undeniably a fantastic role model for women in retail, and whilst I could sing her praises all day long (the bitchy asides on Queen of Shops make the show worth watching alone); actually, that's not what I wanted to cover today.  Mary's next TV project is a topic close to my heart. She is tackling the invisibility of the mature female consumer on the High Street- a subject I covered in my MBA dissertation two years ago.

The statistics look something like this. Due to higher birth rates in the post-war years (the 'baby boomer' generation), increasing life expectancy, and the current slower birth rates;  the proportion of  the population which is over 50yrs old is greater than ever, and is set to continue rising. These 'baby boomers' have re-defined our expectations of older people and most importantly have a considerable financial influence (the over-55s control about 80 per cent of the country's wealth).

And yet. Studies have demonstrated that the mature female is continuing to get the 'cold shoulder' from marketers and researchers, and that the fashion retail sector in particular has been slow to respond to the lifestyle changes of this customer. Basically they don't really know what the older female customer wants, and they don't appear to care much either. Which of course anybody with a mother who has tried in vain to find a 'Mother of The Bride' outfit that wasn't lilac, or ruffle-y, that made her look good- not mutton but not lamb either, would already know.

My research demonstrated that the modern mature female have myriad and complex considerations when deciding what clothes they want to buy and wear; and this is probably why they have not to date been tackled in earnest by retailers, despite their considerable financial pull.

They want to look and feel good- glamorous, sophisticated, smart, in an age-appropriate way. Quality, fit, and fabric are crucial- they want classic, well made pieces, cut impeccably to soothe insecurities about aging bodies. Older women are influenced by celebrities and designer style as seen in magazines and the internet, and also inspired by their peers and family (the invaluable mother daughter shopping trips). They don't feel catered for by the majority of high street brands, due to the distinct lack of the following: suitable products, older models in marketing campaigns; older shop assistants offering meaningful advice etc.

And at the end of the day who wants to try to come up with a marketing message that addresses all these requirements and concerns, when they can keep making clothes for twinkies by ripping off celebrities and luxury fashion designers?

Well. some retailers have bee trying hard to address this issue- M&S with their multi-generational ads, showing they can be a credible destination for you and your daughter, Wallis with their range designed and modelled by Yasmin Le Bon, who may be a supermodel but at least is 45 yrs old.
Other retailers such as Whistles, Jigsaw, and Reiss avoid directly marketing to specific age ranges, and instead focus on creating a brand identity and image (in Reiss' case- "individual, stylish and sexy clothes") that appeal as a lifestyle choice that can appeal to customers of varying ages.

But there are still not enough fashion business producing clothes and marketing campaigns that appeal to older women. Cue Mary, who wants to challenge perceptions in fashion- that youth is sex appeal, middle-age is crinoline or worse- invisible, by opening a shop that will radically reinvent how fashion is sold to older women.

And if anyone can do it....