No.1 for Interviews - Michelle Mone
Michelle Mone

The creator of Ultimo lingerie talks to Cara Kennedy about her new business venture and it surprisingly doesn’t involve bras (well maybe it does, just a little!)

She is widely recognised as one of the most successful female entrepreneurs and the brains behind leading lingerie brand Ultimo. Together with her husband, Michael, Michelle Mone has built a business empire that spans the globe. She has brought us the gel-filled bra that famously gave Julia Roberts that enviable bust in Erin Brockovich, brought designer style underwear to the masses through ranges at Debenhams, Tesco and ASDA, and has given us the bodies we’ve always dreamed of thanks to Ultimo’s superior range of shapewear. But Michelle and Ultimo are branching out. Having just unveiled a collection of 12 sophisticated red carpet style dresses, being sold in Debenhams, ‘Ultimo Couture’ marks a new direction for the company. No.1 managed to grab some time with Michelle to find out why she has decided to take the leap into clothing and discovered the other surprises she has up her sleeve!

Why did you decide to move into clothing and more specifically evening wear?
It all started off quite a long time ago. I was spending thousands of pounds on dresses to go to all these different events and I was only really wearing them once. I always felt that there was something wrong with them too – in particular it seemed as though the bust line was never great. I felt there was a market for glamorous, well-made, affordable dresses.

Did you have any reservations about moving into clothing?
To be honest, I think I felt that I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve with lingerie – don’t get me wrong, there is still more to do, but I felt I was getting bored. I even thought about selling the company and giving up because I just felt I had lost my sparkle. I sat down and spoke to Michael and said that I really wanted to do things that I was passionate about like clothes and make-up and perfume.

So where did you start?
We started working on Ultimo Couture just over a year ago and it’s snowballed. The dresses are priced between £100 to £300 but they should be much, much more with all the Swarovski crystals and details they have.

What did you want to achieve with the collection?
We wanted women to feel really special wearing them so creating something glamorous was really important.

Is it true you have incorporated your underwear expertise into the range?
Because we are bra experts – our technology in the industry is much more advanced than anyone else’s, we have nine worldwide inventions – we wanted to bring this to the dress designs. Bras are built into the dresses and I think that is so important – it’s great when you don’t have to worry about what underwear to wear.

You are fronting the advertising campaign yourself. Why did you decide to do that?
We were going to sign a celebrity to front the campaign but the company board turned round and said that they thought I should do it! It’s been quite exciting. I would never ever have done it before because I wasn’t the size and just didn’t have the figure – I’m not saying that I’m a supermodel or anything now, but I’m happy with the way I look, so why not?

Are you pleased with the pictures?
I’m pretty stunned to be honest. I feel that I’m a normal woman with a normal figure and I think that other women can relate to that.

So will you always front the campaigns?
We’ve actually started a campaign on Facebook to find real women to model for Ultimo Couture. Women kept saying to me, ‘You always use celebrities, but what’s wrong with the real women who are actually buying your products?’ I thought, ‘Good point!’ We had over a thousand women apply in just 20 hours! We’re picking 14 winners and we’re going to take them to London and do a shoot with them using the same team that we do with the likes of Kelly Brook and Mel B. They’ll get their own Ultimo Couture dress, a portfolio and they’ll appear in the advertising campaign. The women are from all over the country and range in age from 18 to about 56 and they are so excited – it’s wonderful!

You mentioned make-up and perfume, with you be moving into those product areas too?
We’re just about to sign a deal with the people who make products for MAC as we are going to be launching Ultimo cosmetics and skincare. For the last 18 months we’ve also been working with a very famous perfumer in Paris who created fragrances for Gucci and Prada.

What has it been like creating a perfume?
The perfumer working on it narrowed it down to three perfumes and he said, ‘Which one?’ I actually couldn’t pick out of the three as one is very fresh for during the day, one is younger and one is a more sexy, heavier perfume for night. He said, ‘Well no one’s ever launched more than one perfume at the one time, why don’t you launch the three?’ All I could say was, ‘Yes!’ So we’re launching three in the one day and that will probably happen early next year.

It sounds as though Ultimo Couture is going to be huge. What’s your vision for it?
We’ve appointed Brian Rennie as the Creative Director of Ultimo Couture and with him on board it’s going to be explosive going forward! There are a few very powerful Creative Directors in the world such as the head of Gucci and the head of Prada, and Brian was one of them. He was the head of Escada for over 20 years.
And after living away for over 25 years he just wanted to come home to Scotland so he’s working here now and we just can’t believe it! We’re really excited, as you don’t get many fashion houses in Scotland.

And is that would you would ultimately like Ultimo Couture to become – a fashion house?
Well with Brian being on board the phones have been ringing from all over the world with people wanting to see the collection. 

Where do you see Ultimo Couture in five years time?

All around the world – just the same as our lingerie. We’re working on an invention at the moment for a dress which has never been done before and hopefully that will take off. I’m just going to keep going and going and going to make it a success, until one day I probably won’t have the energy to keep going anymore. In two years time I’ll be 40 and maybe that’s when I will start to slow down but until then it’s a case of ‘bring it on!’

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