Michelle Mone’s career began with a business idea rooted in a familiar discomfort: she believed a cleavage-enhancing bra could be more comfortable. In 1999, she launched Ultimo at Selfridges in London, turning that idea into the best-known venture of her business career. The brand brought her a public profile as an entrepreneur; subsequent ventures and her appointment to the House of Lords made her a prominent figure beyond fashion. Her record also includes serious disputes over business claims and the government’s pandemic procurement of personal protective equipment, which she later acknowledged having been involved in.

Growing up in Glasgow and entering business

Born Michelle Allan in Glasgow on 8 October 1971, she grew up in Dennistoun, in the city’s East End. She left school at 15 without qualifications and pursued modelling. At 19, she took a marketing job with the brewing company Labatt. Within two years she had become its head of marketing in Scotland. She has since said that she invented qualifications to help secure the job.

At 23, after being made redundant by Labatt, Mone used her redundancy compensation to start a business. In November 1996, she and her then husband, Michael Mone, founded MJM International. The company would become the vehicle for Ultimo and other products, placing the story of the lingerie brand within a broader, sometimes difficult, business career.

Launching Ultimo

Mone’s idea for the first Ultimo bra came from wearing an uncomfortable cleavage-enhancing bra and thinking she could make a more comfortable one. She had read about a new silicone product while on holiday in Florida and approached its maker for a European licence to produce bras. Ultimo launched at Selfridges in August 1999. The brand later added products including backless dresses and shapewear.

The launch story became closely associated with a claim about the film Erin Brockovich: Mone said that Julia Roberts wore an Ultimo bra in the film. Its creators denied that claim. The distinction matters because the story was often presented as a defining moment in the brand’s rise, although the available account does not establish that the film appearance boosted sales.

MJM International grew, but its business record was not as straightforward as the public image of unqualified success suggested. An account of the company’s records reports that Mone exaggerated its turnover and staffing figures between 2007 and 2009. The company had turnover of £8.4 million in 2011 but was not profitable. Mone briefly left the business in 2013 after the breakdown of her relationship with her then husband. Its assets were transferred to parent company Ultimo Brands International in a partnership with MAS Holdings; in November 2014, she sold 80 per cent of her stake in Ultimo Brands International. She resigned her directorships of MJM and Ultimo in August 2015.

Other ventures and public profile

Mone’s business interests extended beyond lingerie. In 2006, MJM formed a joint venture with naturopath Jan de Vries to market TrimSecrets weight-loss pills. Mone attributed her own weight loss to the product and claimed its efficacy had been proved in clinical trials; when questioned, she said that about 60 users had completed a questionnaire but could not produce its results. The business made a loss in each of the four years for which accounts were available in a report published in 2015. Mone also attracted criticism for promoting the pills through a Twitter account styled with her later title of Baroness, although a spokesperson said she had disposed of her ownership before the post.

In 2012, Ultimo Beauty launched a fake-tan product. Mone later took full control of Ubeauty Global, which comprised Ultimo Beauty’s assets, and announced in 2017 that she had sold the company. Other projects included a proposed residential development in Dubai, launched with her partner Doug Barrowman in 2017, and the cryptocurrency project Equi, launched in 2018. Equi aimed to raise money for investment in start-ups but, after weak public fundraising, all investors were refunded.

She also appeared in television programmes about business and entrepreneurship, including the BBC’s Trouble at the Top and Mind Your Own Business, and served as a government entrepreneurship adviser. In 2015, she was appointed to lead a review of entrepreneurship and small businesses, with a focus on setting up businesses in deprived areas. That August, the government announced her creation as a life peer. She was introduced to the House of Lords as Baroness Mone of Mayfair in October.

Her political role drew criticism, including over her attendance in the Lords and her vote against delaying cuts to tax credits in 2015. In 2016, she said she had been wrong to support the cuts and regretted how she had voted. In December 2022, she took a leave of absence from the Lords, saying she wanted to clear her name amid questions about PPE Medpro.

PPE Medpro and the limits of public claims

During the COVID-19 pandemic, PPE Medpro received government contracts worth about £200 million to supply protective equipment. Mone recommended the company to government contacts, and reporting later described her involvement in lobbying for contracts. For years, she and Barrowman denied being involved with PPE Medpro. In November 2023, Mone acknowledged that she and her husband had been involved; in a BBC interview the following month, the couple apologised for having lied about their role and admitted that Mone and her children were beneficiaries.

The contracts also became the subject of a civil dispute over surgical gowns. The Department of Health and Social Care said the gowns did not meet the contract specification and could not be used by the NHS. PPE Medpro said it would vigorously defend the claim. In October 2025, the High Court ruled that the company had breached its contract to provide 25 million sterile gowns: the gowns failed to meet validated sterilisation standards and lacked required certification. The court ordered PPE Medpro to repay £121,999,219 in damages. This judgment concerned the company’s contractual obligations; it should not be conflated with the separate investigations into Mone and her husband.

Honours and a complicated legacy

Mone was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to the lingerie industry. She received an honorary doctorate from Paisley University in 2002 and was recognised as one of the BBC’s 100 women in 2017. These honours sit alongside a public career marked by disputed claims, business setbacks and the scrutiny that followed her appointment to the Lords.

Her story is not simply one of entrepreneurial success or public controversy. Ultimo began with a specific product idea and became a recognisable brand; at the same time, the company’s financial record, the claims made around some of its products and the later PPE Medpro revelations complicate the celebratory version of her career. A fair account has to keep both parts in view.

Why Michelle Mone deserves a place in British Legacy

Mone’s place in a record of British business rests first on the creation and launch of Ultimo. She and Michael Mone established MJM International in Scotland in 1996, and three years later launched Ultimo at Selfridges. The original product answered a clear commercial proposition: a more comfortable version of a cleavage-enhancing bra. Mone’s approach to developing the product, securing a European licence for the silicone material she had encountered, and taking the brand to a major London department store illustrates how an idea can move from a consumer problem to a retail business. The company’s later products and partnership with MAS Holdings show the scale of the enterprise, while its financial difficulties caution against treating brand visibility as proof of lasting commercial success.

Her wider public career also makes her relevant to British Legacy, though not as a simple model of achievement. She became a life peer and was asked to lead a government review focused on entrepreneurship and small businesses in deprived areas. Those roles brought business experience into public discussion, but they also made scrutiny of her conduct and claims especially important. Her later acknowledgement of involvement with PPE Medpro, and the High Court’s finding that the company breached its gowns contract, form part of that record. Remembering Mone responsibly means recognising both the business initiative behind Ultimo and the consequences of the public controversies that followed. That fuller account is more useful than either promotional praise or a biography reduced to scandal.

Sources

Michelle Mone (revision 1379545759)

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.