Cherry of Menloves

Miranda Cherry is the Creative Director of Menloves department store.

For the third year running, Menloves has been named the ‘Best Small Luxury Department Store' in the National Excellence in Retail Awards.

Miranda believes that she alone is responsible for this triptych of victories.

This year's win in particular, she claims, was sealed by the Christmas point of sale material that she creatively directed. It featured Marmoset monkeys in velvet tunics making purchases with unbranded credit cards.

She argued her beliefs strongly in the weekly management meeting.

She also firmly argued that it should be her who received the award on behalf of the store at the annual dinner and ceremony that would be attended by the cream of the retail industry. 

Geoff Bull is Menloves' Financial Director.

Geoff doesn't like Miranda, but she is the daughter of the proprietor of the chain, so he pretends that he does.

In the management meeting he backed Miranda to collect the award on behalf of Menloves and the other seven heads of department in attendance agreed.

On the night of the ceremony, Miranda Cherry collected the award in front of the cream of the retail industry, on a stage in a hotel conference room that looked out across a bend in the River Thames.

She also told a short anecdote about Ethan Brewer.

Ethan Brewer is the photographer who shot the Marmoset monkeys Christmas campaign.

In her anecdote, Miranda explained how Ethan had asked her at the outset of the project whether she had a fixed budget for the campaign.

She had simply told him, “Of course not Ethan, I simply can't work like that.”

Miranda laughed.

The cream of the retail industry laughed.

And they carried on laughing with applause as Miranda left the stage and made her way back to the round table where the Menloves' management team was enjoying some amuse-bouche before dinner was served.