“I was told off for what I wore in the Lords”
Despite taking a seat in the House of Lords, Michelle Mone won’t tone everything down
Baroness Mone of Mayfair is telling me about the nightclub she built in her Glasgow town house. “I’m going to get into trouble for saying this,” she murmurs with a sidelong glance at her PR manager, “because it’s not something a Baroness should say, but…”
And in a rush of defiance it all comes out: “I love karaoke. Love it. And when no one else will do it with me…” She sings her heart out alone in her own private nightclub? “Yes.”
Now that it’s out there, the 45-year-old businesswoman is all urgency: gym-honed body inclined towards me, professionally made-up eyes as sweet and wide as a teenager’s. “My favourite is Whitney Houston’s The Greatest Love of All:i can hit all the high notes. It’s not necessarily pleasant to the ear, but if I’ve had a tough day at the office I’ll blast that out.” We’re still reeling when the mother-of-three drops a second bombshell.
“Oh, and I have another talent: I can do the splits both ways. I’m really proud of that. I’m the wild Baroness, right?”
What a cracking title that would have been for Mone’s autobiography. But when, in 2015, the former Ultimo lingerie boss did publish the story of her ascent from penniless Glasgowborn schoolgirl to multi-millionaire entrepreneur and Tory peer, she chose instead to call it My Fight to the
Top. And it’s equally fitting when you consider what Mone has overcome: the loss of a baby brother from spina bifida when she was just 10 and her factory worker father’s cancer and subsequent paralysis, which forced her to leave school at 15 without a qualification to her name. She had her first child when still a teenager and was made redundant by the brewing company she worked for at 24, and yet on Mone ploughed, determined to find a niche and set up her own business. She achieved both with the invention of a siliconepadded push-up bra that didn’t leave you writhing in agony at the end of a night out. It spawned an empire – and helped her amass an estimated £50million fortune. “Remember that film Joy with Jennifer Lawrence?” she says, referring to the story of Joy Mangano, the American Miracle Mop millionairess. “Well, her story is mild compared to mine.”
It also lacks the insane level of personal drama Mone has had to deal with. At her professional peak, the businesswoman found out that Michael, her husband of 20 years and business associate, had been having an affair with Samantha Bunn, one of her top Ultimo bra designers. After their very public divorce in 2011, Mone came close to a breakdown and temporarily left Ultimo, before buying him out, selling the company in 2014 and giving up on all men except David Cameron, who had appointed her his Business Tsar.
What a difference two years makes. Today, Mone is in love (with fellow Glaswegian billionaire businessman Douglas Barrowman) and about to launch a new global business venture: Michelle Mone Interiors.
With offices in place in Monaco and Dubai, in Old Park Lane, Chelsea, and on the Isle of Man – where she and Barrowman now live on his chateaulike estate – Michelle Mone Interiors will be “a high-end and very personal service that balances luxurious elegance with intelligent design” and promises to turn clients’ homes and businesses “into places that inspire them”.
“I don’t need to start this business,” shrugs Mone, who already has a bestselling jewellery range on QVC and is a shareholder with the online retail start-up Social Superstore. “But I’m passionate about design. Plus I really feel like I’m at the highest point in my life.”
This you can tell just by looking at her. She’s kept off the reported eight ‘‘unhappy marriage’’ stone she lost after the divorce and today looks as close to demure as a woman with a figure like hers can, in a high-necked black top and well-cut trousers, ready to be sworn back in at the House of Lords. “I’ve been told a few times…” That she should tone things down a bit? “Just the first few weeks. And my wardrobe has changed quite a bit.”
It’s clear that the Lords intimidate Mone more than the boardroom ever did. “Board meetings never worried me: I would always get a blow-dry and put on some high heels. I’m not frightened to get my cleavage out in the business world because it makes me feel feminine and that makes me feel powerful. I don’t believe you have to cover up your femininity to be a top businesswoman.”
I’m dying to hear more of Mone’s professional dos and don’ts. Flip-flops in the office? “If it’s a tech company or a flip-flop manufacturer, fine. But would I take on a lawyer who turned up to meet me in flip-flops? No.” Short skirts? “In a nightclub or a pub, fine – but in an accountancy firm or in the House of Lords,” she winks, “it’s inappropriate.” Flirting in the office? “I have banter with people day in, day out. Whether that’s called flirting, I don’t know. But life is short and you can’t be serious all the time. We’re all human beings so there’s nothing wrong with a bit of flirting in the workplace. But if it becomes something else and colleagues turn into sex pests then I’d give them a Glasgow kiss and that would sort them out.”
Throughout Mone’s ascent it hasn’t been over-attentive male co-workers that have been the problem – but jealous women. “I’ve always had this sniping. There’s so much jealousy out there and I don’t understand it. Instead of being in such competition with one another, women should be helping each other out in the workplace. We should be sticking together, because if we did, it would be amazing what we could achieve.”
Does she believe in quotas, I ask? “I see the point – especially in FTSE 100 companies, because it can be tough to break through, but for me it’s not about gender, it’s about what skill set that person has. And why give them a seat on the board just because they’re wearing a bra? They’ve got to really deserve to fill that seat.”
Mone is dedicated about her House of Lords attendance, but when I ask whether she would ever indulge the many Twitter followers who want her to consider a career in politics, she admits the idea scares her.
“There’s still that fear in me that I’m not academic like them, and that I would fall on my backside. Because there will be words they use in the Lords that I don’t understand, and I’ll have to get my iphone out and look them up. But I’m learning more every day and I’m passionate about a lot of issues.”
That passion earned her a lot of cyber bile when it came to her views on the Scottish referendum. “I got several death threats,” she tells me. “But I’m passionate about Scotland and the Union. And if anything good came out of this election it’s the SNP losses. I wouldn’t be scared to take any of them on, but I discovered that being in politics is a no-win situation. Just look at what has happened to Theresa May.”
What would she do in the Prime Minister’s place? “I think she should tough it out. But as I said to Cameron in Downing Street before the referendum: ‘You have got to connect with wee Mary from Govan, because once you do, you’ll have everyone’ – and he laughed. But that’s what May has to do too. She is a modern Margaret Thatcher and, although this will surprise people, I was really inspired by Thatcher.” That is surprising. Then again, I suspect the only predictable thing about fearless, fabulous Mone is that she’ll keep on surprising us for years to come.
For more information about Michelle Mone Interiors, visit michellemoneinteriors.com