MARY PORTAS AND GRAZIA MAGAZINE TO OPEN A “LIVING & GIVING SHOP” AT WESTFIELD LONDON-

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THE VISION

Having spent 12 months working intensively with the charity sector, Mary Portas, Britain’s leading retail guru, came to a singular and focusing conclusion. Rather than taking advantage of the economic downturn to prosper, the vast majority of 5500 Britain’s charity shops had become smelly places products go to die.

From Thursday 4th June to Saturday 27th June, Mary Portas with Grazia, helped by many of their friends across the worlds of fashion and retail, will create a new kind of second hand shop in the luxurious surroundings of the Village at Westfield London. A shop which sits at the heart of a community. A shop people want to be in; A living and giving shop

DONATE DON’T DUMP!

In her work with the sector, despite the fact that 75 percent of women have 14 items of clothing, collectively worth £7 billion, which have never seen the light of day, Mary’s most distressing realization was that a charity shops fundamental problem was the quality of donations. For her Living and Giving shop at Westfield London, who have donated the space free of charge, Mary has teamed up with Grazia magazine to encourage their thousands of fashion savvy readers to give unwanted but not neglected products to the shop. In addition, Grazia has asked the world’s most influential people and desirable brands to donate. So far, Sarah Mower of American Vogue has offered some serious designer goodies, Prada, Burberry, Mulberry, Luella Bartley and Savannah Miller have offered clothes while presenter Brix Smith-Start has donated a work of art and a Miu Miu skirt suit!

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

All the money raised will go to three key national charities - Save The Children, Mind and Trees for Cities

Save the Children for example, help save the lives of the 10 million children who die under the age of five each year. Every three seconds a child dies from a preventable disease – that’s 30,000 children every day dying from diseases like diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and measles. It doesn't cost much to save a child's life and every item bought counts.

DO THE FASHION MATHS!
* Buying a £5 T-shirt from Mary's Living & Giving shop = giving a family a mosquito net to sleep under and stop them catching deadly malaria.
* A £30 handbag = a life-saving water filter.
* A £100 dress donated by a designer = a kit of vital medical supplies for a clinic in one of the world's poorest communities.

MARYS TEAM
The shop will be manned by celebrity volunteers, celebrity ambassadors, Grazia staff and charity helpers along with handpicked fashion designers, writers and stylists invited by Grazia. Mary has also asked everyone in her retail agency Yellowdoor to join the effort.

WHATS ON SALE?
The shop will sell designer and high street fashion items, books, music, art and whatever else Mary determines to make the grade. Anything which doesn’t won’t make the shop floor. A living and giving shop isn’t a dumping ground for your old rubbish. In addition, Mary has asked her friends at West London’s chicest nursery Petersham Nurseries to sell plants, herbs and flowers.

HOW CAN I GIVE?

1. Send your donations clearly marked for “MARY’S LIVING AND GIVING SHOP” to Save the Children collection depot in Derby. 4A Cotton Brook Road, Sir Francis Ley Industrial Park South, Derby DE23 8YH.
2. Drop off your donations at Grazia HQ from 19 May to June 4th. Strictly between 9am and 6pm, at 189 Shaftsbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JG.
3. Come to Westfield London from 4th -27th June when Mary’s Living and Giving Shop in The Village opens and drop in your donations, before you shop.

The shop will be located next door to Donna Ida and Twenty8Twelve on the first floor in The Village at Westfield. http://uk.westfield.com/london/getting-there

Barnett, L. (7th January, 2006) Women waste £13,000 on unworn clothes [www.independent.co.uk]. Available from:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/women-waste-16313000-on-unworn-clothes-521997.html

 

Against a backdrop of the worst economic downturn in recent memory, and the country declaring a stop on spending, the ‘Living & Giving Shop’ at Westfield London makes £113,000.

STOP PRESS - LATEST NEWS-IT HAS BEEN AN UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS !
2 months ago, a pop-up charity shop in Westfield London was not on anyone's radar.  3 weeks ago, with Mary Portas, Grazia and Westfield London, Save the Children retail team opened the world's first shopping centre charity shop – Mary’s ‘Living and Giving shop’.
 
The ambition was to raise £50,000 in 3 weeks, however with the last count today being £113,000. 400 volunteers have been involved, some from the charities – Save the Children, Mind & Trees for Cities and others from Mary’s retail consultancy Yellowdoor, Grazia magazine and Westfield London. We've had stock from Oasis to Vivienne Westwood, from Mulberry to Doc Marten, and everything in between.  Customers have literally poured through our doors with every single one of them leaving with a smile on their face. This has been a chance to buy an individual one-off item, to buy it at a good price, to support a charity that saves children's lives and to have a great shopping experience.  The energy and buzz that the shop created feels quite unprecedented. 

Celebrities have also flocked to the shop, some of which even leant a hand! Tara Palmer Tomkinson, Meg Matthews and Lauren Laverne to name a few.

Nearly 10 million children die under the age of five each year - mostly from diseases like malaria, measles and diarrhea - things the world knows how to prevent and treat. Save the Children knows that simple solutions save lives - items like rehydration salts, vaccinations and a mosquito net which don't cost very much money can stop a child dying. Just £5 will save a child's life. By raising £100,000 that means that 20,000 children's lives have been saved. That's the equivalent of 100 primary schools full of children who will now stay alive.

£70 could buy a first aid kit for a clinic in a poor community around the world. Many health centres are poorly equipped which means parents and children go without vital care that can help them survive. A clinic kit includes small but life saving items like bandages, dressings, thermal blankets, thermometers, cotton wool, sterile gloves, elastosplast, antiseptic creams and emergency glucose sachets.
 
£70 could provide a food basket for a malnourished family in one of the poorest parts of Africa, helping to feed them for 19 days.
 
£125 will give a poor child in China a meal a day for a year at primary school, helping to prevent that child suffering from malnutrition, a common problem.
 
or £125 provides 50 children in Angola with life-saving malaria treatment
 
Every year 2 million babies die on their first day of life. £125 could provide a life-saving warmer for a neo-natal unit in Pakistan - helping newborn babies to regulate their temperatures and survive those first hours of life.
 
Jasmine Whitbread, CEO Save the Children said, ‘This has to be a record. I am so overwhelmed by the success of Mary’s Living and Giving Shop for Save the Children at Westfield London. £100,000 is an unbelievable sum of money far more than we dreamed. Everyone involved has been amazing, designers who have donated clothes, people who have volunteered and of course the public who have shopped till they drop! Mary and her team have been incredible.’

Whitbread continues, 'Save the Children staff across the globe are working flat out to stop the 10 million children who die under the age of five each year - with this money we can save thousands of children's lives and give them the start in life that every child deserves. Saving a child's life can cost as little as £5 - so every T-shirt, handbag or designer dress bought has stopped children from dying.  I hope the public will keep donating wonderful things to our Save the Children shops across the country so we can keep saving children's lives.’