Free My Fight to the Top by Michelle Mone Page A

water.
    ‘Yes,’ she said, bemused.
    ‘Oh, no, you need to ask my husband.’ I backed away. I was camera shy back then!
    Michael didn’t want to be on TV and told the lady she needed to speak to me. ‘She’s the one who designed it,’ he said proudly.
    ‘What do I do? Where do I look? Is it live?’ I spluttered.
    ‘Hang on, I need to find a new shirt,’ I panicked, pointing to my milk-drenched top. Selfridges found me something to wear and I did a row of interviews there and then. I was scared at first but after the tenth I started to feel natural in front of the camera.
    Meanwhile, Tom Hunter was trying to get my attention. ‘Michelle, Selfridges has sold six months’ stock in five hours.’
    ‘What?’ I yelled across the commotion.
    ‘They’ve sold out of bras,’ he shouted. Selfridges had never seen anything close to it apart from the Furby toy craze at Christmas. Strangers cuddled me in the street, saying, ‘You’ve changed my life, I’ve got boobs!’ It was the biggest ever bra launch in Europe. It cost £500 and I got PR worth £52 million.
    I had literally just stepped into my office back in Glasgow when our new employee, Angela, handed me the phone. ‘There’s an American woman on the line for you.’
    ‘I don’t know an American woman,’ I sighed. I was completely exhausted.
    ‘It’s Barbara Lipton, she’s the president of Saks Fifth Avenue, New York.’
    ‘Yeah, right, that will be my friend Ilene winding me up,’ I snorted. Ilene and her husband, Bernard, were probably our closest friends. They lived next door to Michael’s parents and I’d known them since I first started dating Michael. Ilene was 15 years older than me and had become a sister to me. We’d had a spell of winding each other up because of this radio show that was going on at the time called
The Wind-Ups
. I picked up the phone and said, ‘Ilene, what is it?’
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘Look, stop with your phony American accent,’ I went on.
    ‘Do you know that Julia Roberts is wearing your bra in
Erin Brockovich
? The film premiered in Times Square last night,’ she went on.
    It was too much to take.
    ‘Look, enough! I’ve been up breast-feeding Bethany all night. I’ve got cracked nipples, I’ve got cabbage leaves in my bra, now piss off,’ I snapped.
    I put down the phone, and then a fax came through with the crest of Saks Fifth Avenue, saying: ‘We want to launch Ultimo. I couldn’t understand your Scottish accent, can you call me back?’
    I was mortified that I’d told her to piss off. Of course I called her back! Barbara told me she wanted to launch my brand in all of her 54 stores. We’d hit the big time. I sat for a moment and reflected. The reason Julia Roberts was wearing my bra was because I had sent prototypes to wardrobe people, stylists and celebrities. I must have sent out 200 bras and Julia Roberts’ stylist happened to pick one up. Apparently the stylist had designed a bra for Julia Roberts using parts of Ultimo. So that was a major lesson: never wait for people to come to you; you’ve got to go out there and get the opportunity yourself.

8
RAGS TO RICHES
    Never forget the ones that matter.
    ‘ O h, my god! I’ve been invited to tea at the Palace with Prince Charles,’ I screamed, waving the gold-embossed invitation.
    Michael and I had become millionaires overnight. My bras were selling everywhere from Debenhams to John Lewis and we were about to launch in Australia and Canada. Prince Charles invited me to join the Scottish board of the Prince’s Trust. Tony Blair nominated me for the World Young Entrepreneur award. I won businesswoman of the year, designer of the year, export brand of the year… you name it, I won it. I was in the
Sunday Times
Rich List as the third richest in the under-30 category in the UK – I was a millionaire by 28! Millionaire, in terms of the company value.
    We didn’t splash out though – at first. It was amazing that when I put my card in the cash machine