Mary Portas Just Keeps On Giving With A New Designer Charity Boutique In Edinburgh
When Mary Portas agreed to do the series ‘Mary Queen of Charity Shops’ for the BBC where she attempted to take an old outdated charity shop and make it just as enticing to shoppers as the high street names and designer labels on the street she probably didn’t think it was going to turn out to be an issue she was going to be get so passionate about.
However that is exactly what has happened, because far from stopping and moving onto a new project when the show finished, Portas has instead put her heart and soul into changing the perception of what charity shopping is all about by launching her Living and Giving shop chain.
First appearing as a pop up shop in the upmarket Westfields shopping centre last year, this first shop wasn’t filled with old vases, faded pictures and old tatty books with pages missing that you’ve come to expect from charity shops but something a whole more appealing – designer fashion at bargain prices.
Seeing queues that went on for days and shop assistants that were more often seen on your television screen than in shops, this first venture, which was supported by the fashion magazine Grazia (for whom Melanie Rickey, her other half, rather handily works as the fashion features editor) was such a success that Portas decided it was time to find a permanent home for a store, and where better than the very hip and happening city of Edinburgh.
Mary’s Living and Giving Shop for Save the Children is at 34 Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh EH4 1HN and is open 10am — 5pm every day. Mary will be instore from 10.30am on Tuesday 1st December.
Set up in aid of Save The Children, the shop opened in November of last year and has featured designer goods donated from Jamie Oliver, Meg Matthews, Peaches Geldof, Lauren Laverne and Grazia itself alongside that of the rather fashionable Scottish people.
Making over £5k on it’s first day of trading, the store not only offers great designer bargains but also allows young local businesses to promote themselves and grew with jewellery designers, artist and even bakers able to trade off the shop floor in exchange for splitting their profits with the charity.
Fancy grabbing yourself a designer bargain? Mary’s Living and Giving Shop for Save the Children is at 34 Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh EH4 1HN and is open 10am — 5pm every day.
You can learn more about the Shopping Neutral concept that Mary Portas is promoting in her presentation to Grazia below:
