Michelle Mone’s best-known business was built around a practical idea: a more comfortable cleavage-enhancing bra. Ultimo became a recognised lingerie brand, but the story did not begin with a product launch in 1996, as an earlier account stated. Mone founded MJM International with her then-husband that year; Ultimo followed in 1999. Her later career ranged from other consumer ventures and television to a life peerage. It also became closely associated with the controversy over PPE Medpro, the company awarded government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Growing up in Glasgow and entering business

Born Michelle Georgina Allan on 8 October 1971, Mone grew up in Dennistoun, in Glasgow’s East End. She left school at 15 without qualifications, initially to pursue modelling. At 19, she obtained a marketing job with the Labatt brewing company and, within two years, had become its head of marketing in Scotland. After she was made redundant, she used her compensation to establish a business. In November 1996, she and her then-husband, Michael Mone, founded MJM International.

The original idea for the Ultimo bra came from Mone’s experience wearing an uncomfortable cleavage-enhancing bra. She believed she could develop a more comfortable alternative. While on holiday in Florida, she read about a new silicone product and approached its maker for a European licence to produce bras. Ultimo’s first product used the material in a cleavage-enhancing design.

Ultimo’s launch and the company behind it

Mone launched the Ultimo brand at Selfridges in London in August 1999. This distinction matters: MJM International began in 1996, but the lingerie brand appeared three years later. Ultimo subsequently expanded its range to include products such as backless dresses and shapewear. The business’s development was not simply a story of a single product; it involved building a company and extending its offer beyond its original bra.

In 2013, Mone briefly left MJM International after her relationship with Michael Mone broke down. The business assets were transferred to Ultimo Brands International, formed in partnership with MAS Holdings. In November 2014, she sold 80 per cent of her stake in that company. She resigned her directorships of MJM and Ultimo in August 2015. These changes mark the end of her direct role in the businesses associated with the original brand, rather than a continuous career as their owner.

Her other ventures included Ultimo Beauty, which launched a fake-tan product in 2012, and TrimSecrets, a weight-loss product developed with naturopath Jan de Vries. The account of TrimSecrets attracted criticism: Mone claimed that the product’s efficacy had been shown in clinical trials, but was unable to produce trial results when asked and described a questionnaire completed by users instead. In 2015, a British Dietetic Association spokesperson criticised claims made for the product. In 2017, Mone announced that she had sold Ubeauty Global, which held the Ultimo Beauty assets.

Television, public roles and a peerage

Mone’s business career brought her into television. She was profiled in the 2002 BBC Two documentary Trouble at the Top: Boom or Bust, presented the BBC One series Mind Your Own Business in 2005, and appeared on The Apprentice: You’re Fired! between 2007 and 2009. She also took part in a celebrity edition of The Apprentice in 2009, ITV’s 71 Degrees North in 2010 and Celebrity MasterChef in 2011.

In August 2015, the government announced that Mone would lead a review of entrepreneurship and small businesses, with particular attention to setting up businesses in deprived areas. The same month, Prime Minister David Cameron included her in a list of new life peers. She was created Baroness Mone of Mayfair on 30 September 2015 and introduced in the House of Lords in October. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to the lingerie industry, and Paisley University awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2002.

Her parliamentary role attracted criticism, including over her first vote, against a motion to delay cuts to tax credits. Mone later said she had been wrong to support the cuts and regretted how she had voted. Her attendance was also criticised in press reporting. In December 2022, she announced that she was taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords amid allegations concerning PPE Medpro, saying she wanted to clear her name.

PPE Medpro and the public record

PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts in 2020 to supply protective equipment during the pandemic: one for facemasks, worth £80.85 million, and one for surgical gowns, worth £122 million. The contracts were awarded under emergency arrangements that did not require the usual competitive tender process. In 2021, information emerged that Mone had recommended the company to government ministers. She initially denied being connected to PPE Medpro; in December 2023, she and her husband, Doug Barrowman, acknowledged their involvement and apologised for having previously denied their role. Mone also acknowledged that she and her children were beneficiaries, while maintaining that she did not believe there was a case to answer for wrongdoing.

The company’s contracts became the subject of investigations and legal action. The government said the gowns did not meet the contract specification and could not be used by the NHS; PPE Medpro said it would defend the claim. In October 2025, the High Court ruled that the company had breached its contract to supply 25 million sterile surgical gowns. The judge found that the gowns failed to meet validated sterilisation standards and lacked required certification, and ordered PPE Medpro to pay £121,999,219 in damages. That ruling concerned the company’s contractual obligations. It should not be treated as a finding that Mone herself committed a crime.

Why Michelle Mone deserves a place in British Legacy

Mone’s place in a record of British business rests first on the creation and development of a recognisable lingerie brand. She helped take an idea for a more comfortable cleavage-enhancing bra from product concept to a launch at one of London’s best-known department stores, and built that work through MJM International. Ultimo’s subsequent range and the company’s commercial development show the practical steps between identifying a customer need and establishing a business around it. Her move from marketing employment to founding a company is also a specific example of entrepreneurship rooted in Scotland and developed within the UK retail market.

Her public career belongs in the account too, but not as a simple tale of unqualified triumph. Mone received an OBE for services to the lingerie industry, became a life peer and was asked to lead a government review of small-business creation, particularly in deprived areas. At the same time, the PPE Medpro affair and the High Court’s finding against that company are essential context for assessing her public record. Including both the business achievement and the later controversy gives readers a more useful legacy: one that recognises commercial initiative while distinguishing Mone’s acknowledged involvement from the court’s specific finding about PPE Medpro’s contract. That fuller account makes her career relevant to British Legacy without relying on inflated claims about influence or inspiration.

Sources

Michelle Mone — revision 1379545759 · Michelle Mone

Adapted in part from Michelle Mone by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.