Beautiful Misfits

We all need to do our bit to create a better future than the **** show we’ve got right now. Let’s make a commitment to be that bit more conscious, think about how we live, buy, who we bank with, work and vote for. Even the smallest changes knit together to create a greater whole.

In this episode of Beautiful Misfits, I’m talking to the wonderful Thomasina Miers. After winning Masterchef, Tommi co-founded Wahaca – the chain of Mexican restaurants that had sustainability baked in from the beginning. They’ve been carbon neutral since 2016 and are forging a new path on how food can be good for planet – and people. In addition to all that, Tommi is a passionate campaigner around all things food. From working to get chefs into schools to create truly nutritious food for children, to campaigning to fix our broken food system – she's passionate about it all – because bad food is literally killing us and the planet. 

She’s tireless, inspiring and I loved talking to her. Let's take Tommi's ideas for a better world and run.

TW: This episode contains references to mental illness and suicide.

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As a fifth-generation baker from the esteemed Hobbs House Bakery family, Tom Herbert grew up with yeast in his in his genes and a ready-made career to fall into. But after a series of events including a visit to refugee camps in Calais, Tom realised he couldn't just take the easy path, and felt an urgent need to contribute to something more purposeful. He founded The Long Table in Stroud – a project which I love and have eaten at many times myself – that looks at tackling all aspects of food inequality, starting with community dining. Tom is a believer that simple solutions, community spirit, and kindness can change the world. I'll raise my baguette to that!

To support The Long Table visit https://www.thelongtableonline.com/donate

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Success isn’t always a straight line. Trinny Woodall burst onto our TV screens on What Not To Wear alongside Susannah Constantine in the noughties. Twenty years on she’s got a million Instagram followers and a beauty business – Trinny London – that turns over something like £50 million a year. Those are the headlines. But there is so much more than that. Because while Trinny has gone through the highs of public success, she’s also experienced the lows of addiction in her twenties, complex bereavement, and a failed dotcom business – with everything in between. And after all of that, she took the leap into the beauty business after decades in fashion aged 53.

It took a long time for us to meet. And I’m not sure why we didn’t before. But I’m so glad we finally got the chance to because Trinny is a soulful woman. Join us on today’s episode as we talk about fashion, family and whether to lean into a male-dominated business world. 

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Imagine your daughter being so scared for your safety that she fainted when you took too long popping out for a pint of milk? This is what happened to Gina Miller, the woman who took the government to court in the midst of the Brexit furore. She wasn’t trying to stop Brexit. She was fighting for our democracy. But she was  so abused and threatened for standing up to the system that she feared for her – and her children’s – safety.

In this episode of Beautiful Misfits I talk to Gina about her extraordinary story. Her life has been one of many challenges – from a serious sexual assault when she was a teenager to fighting for her daughter who was born with significant extra needs – and yet she is still hopeful. And Gina believes we all have a choice: to give in to all the negatives, or believe in our collective power to create a better future. So now she’s launched a political party to campaign for it. She’s inspirational. I hope you enjoy. 

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I’m in my 60s. Florence Given is in her 20s. But we came together to chat everything from body image to the new kind of protest movements unfolding on social media. And what I realised is that so many of the issues that older women have faced are still being negotiated by younger women today. The good news though is that they’re getting vocal about them. Florence is an illustrator, artist and author, who’s also got a huge following on social media. And she’s loved by Gen Z women - and older ones too - for her willingness to talk about everything from feminism and sex to her own sexuality and how young women – and men – navigate relationships today.

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Fear is a big one isn’t it? The fear of failure. The fear of stepping out of our lane and getting flattened. But in today’s episode of Beautiful Misfits, I talk to Dr Sharon Blackie about why confronting our fears is one of the vital keys to unlocking change in ourselves and the world around us. She did this. She was so afraid of flying - and failing in a big corporate life - that she took the radical step of training a pilot. Today Sharon is an author and teacher whose work centres on how to bring back balance into a world that’s gone so off course in many ways. And the ancient wisdom found in the stories of our past that provide the answers we need for the future.

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On this week's Beautiful Misfits, I'm joined by the general manager UK at Ankorstore. Tarun Gidoomal and I share a belief in the vitality of the relationships at the heart of retail - shops are about emotion, not just buying and selling. I learned about the value of local shops after my mother died. As a teenager, feeling completely lost without her, I’d get off the school bus each day wondering what I was going to cook my dad and brother that night. But it was the local butcher and grocer who helped me work it out, saved me bits, offered me kindness. They were a light in a very dark time. Tarun, like me, has experienced loss in his life and has come to understand that what tests us most can also help us grow.

Join us on today’s episode of Beautiful Misfits as we chat loss, moving past the behaviours that protected us in pain but no longer serve us, and the power of shops to create beautiful business for beautiful living. 

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And to get in touch with team Portas, email us at: [email protected] and you can subscribe to the Portas POV Newsletter for musings, provocation insights and inspiration.

This week's Beautiful Misfits guest is Ione Gamble. I absolutely loved talking to this intelligent, questioning, energetic and – crucially – hopeful young woman. Ione is a writer, editor, art director and founder of Polyester Zine. She is also, in her own words, a ‘gross girl’.

Diagnosed weeks after her birthday with Chrohn’s disease – a debilitating inflammatory bowel disease – Ione’s young adult life has been shaped by illness, and hospital wards.S he channels all this into her work as she questions many of the stories still being told to us as women - particularly about physical beauty. Because despite all the body positivity, beauty is all too often still slim, white and able bodied. But how many of us feel we actually fit these archetypes? Ione joins me to talk about all of this - plus the the world of fashion, social media and how ‘good taste’ is often just about propping up the existing power structures. 

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From fashion to interiors and retail, Jasper Conran has tapped into his creativity across a range of disciplines to build a glittering career. But his journey to get there has taken many stages of transformation and resistance. We talk about the legacy of coming from a family that ‘has it all’, the loneliness of his childhood, the eating disorder and self-esteem problems Jasper suffered as a teenager – and how he had to carve out his own path by defying expectations of his father (Sir Terence Conran), of himself, and of the industry. He’s a gentle soul, wonderfully funny and, after knowing him for many years, I loved sitting down with him to talk.

Follow Mary Portas on:

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And to get in touch with team Portas, email us at: [email protected] and you can subscribe to the Portas POV Newsletter for musings, provocation insights and inspiration.

Imagine a world in which we had true gender equality, a world in which women and girls could unleash all their power and come together with boys and men to create something new. Jude Kelly founded the Women of the World festival in 2010 to focus on just that – to celebrate the achievements of women and confront global gender injustice. She is also a storyteller, and prior to WoW built a decorated career as a theatre director and producer. Today she mentors, campaigns, and her work has left a huge impact on me personally. At the heart of it all – of course – is a very human story of a woman deeply connected to her creative feminine power, making her way in a world that doesn’t always make that easy.

Follow Mary Portas on:

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And to get in touch with team Portas, email us at: [email protected] and you can subscribe to the Portas POV Newsletter for musings, provocation insights and inspiration.