On the first evening of Clerkenwell Design Week, Tuesday 19th May 2026, Milliken hosted a special event with Mary Portas in conversation with Katie Treggiden. The session was entitled ‘Reuse, Reframed.’
Mary Portas OBE, is a businesswoman, a broadcaster, an author and an activist, who made her name creating change. Aged 30, she became a board member at Harvey Nichols before founding her own retail consultancy and has since worked with some of the biggest names in global retail. Her BBC series – Mary Queen of Shops – premiered in 2007 and she has presented on television and radio for the BBC and Channel 4 ever since. Mary has written six books, the most recent of which is I Shop Therefore I am: The 90's, Harvey Nicks – and me.
Katie Treggiden is an author, journalist, speaker and strategist on a mission to share true stories of imperfect progress towards genuine sustainability.
As co-chair of the Better Business Act, Mary heads a coalition of businesses calling for a change in the law to ensure UK companies align their interests with those of wider society and the environment and, in her podcast Beautiful Misfits, she interviews fellow changemakers taking the imaginative leap to create a better world. This is what Milliken sought to find out more about from Mary.
Katie began by asking about Mary about her most recent book, ‘I Shop Therefore I am: The 90's, Harvey Nicks – and me’, which takes readers inside the Britpop-fuelled fashion world of the 1990s. Why are we obsessed with the 90s at the moment and, crucially, what has changed since then?
Mary noted “The 1990s was the last era before digital rewired our brains. In the Britpop era stores were creative hubs, but with the digital era we have lost a lot of the sense of touch and the creative idea. The idea of ‘I Shop Therefore I am’ was actually meant as an indictment of over consumerism and how the earth is affected by this.”
Mary pioneered a reimagining of reuse with her TV series ‘Mary Queen of Charity Shops’ in 2009 and ‘Mary’s Living and Giving Shops’, which have raised more than £30million for Save The Children. Vinted is now taking the world by storm (the number one fashion retailer in France and the third largest in the UK), but back in 2009, there was still stigma around secondhand clothing. How did Mary help change that?
Mary said that there was a real disrespect for charity shops; “dumping instead of donating was the norm in the 80’s. In the 90s people started to become uncomfortable with over consumption. Currently we are heading for a place that’s smaller and built on connection.”
Katie noted that fashion seems to have made reuse sexy and desirable, but that commercial interiors hasn’t made the same leap. She asked: “What can we do so that this time next year, more Clerkenwell showrooms showcase preloved materials alongside new ones, as Milliken is doing this year? What can we learn from Mary’s experience?
Mary responded: “There is a slight seriousness that comes with this industry [interior architects and designers]. Perhaps there’s a need to loosen it up a bit. We need a shift in focus from what you are selling to how you want people to feel. From status symbols to status stories.”
At Portas, Mary’s consultancy, Mary talks about ‘creating beautiful businesses’, and in the afterword of ‘I Shop Therefore I am’, she describes beautiful business as a creative and defiant act. Katie asked: “Can you tell us more about the power of creativity in business?”
Mary explained that when she joined Harvey Nichols, it was a loss making business and went on to become one of the biggest global brands. Mary stressed the importance of creative people and ideas not being be led by finance. “Great creative people take risks. KPIs shouldn’t be applied to ideas,” said Mary. “Beautiful businesses have a soul and you can trust them. They have respect for people and the planet.”
Mary’s previous book ‘Rebuild: How To Thrive in the Kindness Economy’ written during the COVID lockdowns described ‘community, value’ creativity and purpose’ as ‘life rafts’ stating “I believe we are in an era of hope.” Katie asked: “A lot has happened since then. Do you still feel hopeful?”
Mary’s powerful response was: “Hope is a muscle – it needs to be used, talked about and shared, then it will manifest itself. Design is at the heart of that and how we can make change.”
Katie ended the session by asking: “We hear a lot about risk and scarcity in the current climate. What are the opportunities and how can businesses in the commercial design sector align themselves with them?”
Mary replied: “We’re not going to see the growth that we did, times have changed. We need to ask: what does the ‘new good’ look like? And ‘when did you ever have enough’?”
There was a strong collective agreement in the room that with great design comes great responsibility. Together, we made a shared commitment to take a meaningful step forward in advancing reuse.
At Milliken, reuse isn’t new — it’s something we’ve been embedding into our approach for many years. From the floor up, we’ve been focused on finding scalable, practical ways to give commercial flooring the genuine second life it deserves.
That said, we recognise that reuse can often feel like the harder option. That’s exactly why conversations like this matter. By looking beyond our own industry, we can challenge thinking, share ideas, and identify clearer pathways forward.
What stood out most was the sense of alignment in the room — a collective willingness to move together, to embrace change, and to take that leap. A shared commitment to make reuse not just possible, but specifiable, celebrated, and in demand across the interiors industry.
Excited to see what CDW 2027 could have in store — will more showrooms begin to showcase reuse as the norm, alongside new products?
Read more about Milliken's circularity strategy: What is Milliken's Circularity Strategy