Massenet picked up an MBE for her services to fashion at an inaugural ceremony at Buckingham Palace this weekend. Her online fashion retailer, Net-A-Porter, reported a 234 per cent increase in profits to £10.1m this year, despite the recession.
Designer Jeff Banks and 81-year old hair supremo Vidal Sassoon were appointed CBEs. Lopa Patel received an MBE for services to the creative industries through Redhotcurry.com. She says, "For many, such a great honour as this would be the culmination of many years of hard work and effort. For me it marks that start of a new chapter in giving back to business and the community. Expectations among my family and friends are high – I know that they are looking to see what I can do next in raising the profile of the Asian community in Britain, getting more women-owned businesses off the ground and in helping young Asians feel proud to be British".
Entrepreneur Rachel Lowe was also awarded an MBE for services to business, despite her company, RTL Games, going into administration last month. Dragons’ Den fans may remember Lowe from the Destination London episode, where the budding entrepreneur pitched her alternative Monopoly game to Duncan Bannatyne et al. She failed to receive investment and, when a recent joint venture to produce a Destination Hogwarts board game with the Harry Potter franchise went awry, her firm went under.
Politicians were conspicuously absent from this year’s honours list. A costly consequence of the expenses scandal, perhaps?
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