the big turning point was when we got into selfridge's.partment store on oxford street. so, it wasjust seeing the footfall, once the number of people that got to see the product, and the sales started happening, that was a fundamental moment for me. is a budgie smuggler a complete no—no? moment for me. is a budgie smuggler a complete no-no? they're fine, briefs. is that what they are, ? a quick word on who wears your stuff. like all brands, it's about who is seen like all brands, it's about who is seenin like all brands, it's about who is seen in it and not seen it. i would ask you to name names, but i suppose there are people you prefer not to see in them? we've had fabulous celebrities wearing them, and we thrilled about that. you also have people who are maybe less thrilled when that moment happens. but it results in people getting to know about the product. the fundamental thing is when you see people on the beach, and you see people wearing it. and i have seen your posts around the world! that's the thing, when you go to the beach and

would be selfridges for the fancy people but it's the same people behind say l'oreal making both products or. you know they follow you in places if they don't feel like you're quite right for it or they exist all the examples of it the subtleties the if you go into a wal-mart there which is you know store by and large it's a very cheap clothing store and i think they've just rolled out a big market here but it was interesting i went into one recently and all the clothing marketed towards people of a certain means were all fluorescent and then i thought you're not going to go into a store on you know rodeo drive with all these floor it was like so we can easily identify the poor people there's a lot of psychology that goes into the stuff and i i had a lot of time i suppose to think about it and your choice of rebellion like so when the other children all around the world was the only way that many of them have. fashion music and fashion and just i didn't i was very ok with being different i was very ok i was looking differently and i was ok with putting out a message of i guess i'm not lik

in some places, there is an selfridge's, harrods, all these apple and that.ass, if you don't have people with money, they are not going to be able to spend the money in retail no matter what the retail is. so there isa matter what the retail is. so there is a more fundamental issue there of people having to have good employment and having money that they can spend, which is a much bigger economic issue. but what you can do with what you've got for retail is it has to be experiential, it is probably find for it to go into smaller spaces because we have the end i'll now, you can go into a store like in america, nordstrom is a bit like house of fraser, properly a bit like house of fraser, properly a bit like house of fraser, properly a bit higher rent more of a harrods, and they have nordstrom local, where it isa and they have nordstrom local, where it is a tiny little store in la, no infa ntry it is a tiny little store in la, no infantry at all, nothing. they hold nothing there. it is basically click and select. you order online yourself, go there the next day

are stuck in the middle of the high street so at the top end, even on 0xford street you've got selfridge'sin a place where they've not got enough sales to cover the cost of rent, the standing cost and people are not buying enough from them. i think it's as much a failure of house of fraser in terms of keeping the offer up as it is around the whole change in the retail market we are seen at the moment. i will come back that in a second but basically 75% of the creditors if they agree to these closures, you are saying house of fraser fundamentally needs to have a rethink about how it presents itself, what it stocks etc? absolutely, it needs to think about what it looks like in a digital age and how it is going to move forward ina and how it is going to move forward in a reduced business, reduced footprint which is probably the right thing and creditors do need to agree to that but i don't think they are out of the woods yet. there is more they need to think about. in terms of how it competes in the digital world, you may have heard and the street speaking about that, the formerjohn lewis bos

someone likejohn lewis or selfridge's, it's much more about experience.for a long time in the stores, it has a very long—term view, whereas house of fraser has been strapped for cash for a long time and it's been a tale of smaller stores that needed lots of investment and didn't have the cash for it. thinking now about all the empty house of fraser stores, some of them are great big buildings that are going to be empty, some of these 31 that are going. what's going to happen to them? it's hard to imagine other businesses wanting to take on a property portfolio like that when another business has apparently failed within it? they are very large stores and they will probably be split up, take on a different purpose. some... the upperfloors could be workspaces, or even residential. also entertainment, leisure, all kinds of things. it's really about getting people... people are going to high streets for different reasons now. we've heard from some who have said house of fraser was the big last store in their community, that that was... notjust from their comm