Thirty years ago, Middleton was an industrial hub with 11 clothing factories. Today, it is riddled with joblessness, while a fifth of its population is counted as young unemployed. A family firm since 1935, Headen & Quarmby ceased trading eight years ago. Portas says: “I was looking at what we gave away as a country. What we gave away was people, communities, a sense of belonging. The women there said, 'It was like our family, Mary. My mother worked here, my sisters, three cousins over there. When the factory closed it was the worst day of my life.’ And we gave away that for sweatshops. The heartbreak of it.”

Mary recruited eight apprentices – five women and three men – aged 20 to 35. For their training, she turned to the “Old Nellies” (former local seamstresses) and Nottingham’s last stretch lacemaker, Jim Stacey. Portas has no financial stake in the Kinky Knicker brand – any profit is injected back into the business, and her pants, which retail at £10, are of a quality that a less philanthropic business would sell at three times the price.