A SHOPPING tycoon who gave the UK’s fashion scene a major makeover has died aged 87.
Retail queen Vera Weisfeld created cut price clothing chain What Everyone Wants, along with husband Gerald.
Long before the likes of Primark, Matalan and TK Maxx their budget chain was hailed for putting the latest trends up for grabs at affordable prices.
At the height of its success the couple sold up for £50million in 1990 and donated millions to charity over the decades.
A spokesperson said: ”Vera died peacefully, with her family around her, on Thursday night.”
Vera was born in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, in her family’s basement flat which didn’t have electricity or an inside toilet.
Despite her fortune potentially unlocking some of the world’s most desirable places to stay, she was adamant that no property was ever better than her first home.
She started on the high street at C&A on Glasgow’s Argyle Street, rising from a 15-year-old junior to head of the branch’s ‘Marking Off’ room within a year.
Two decades later she turned down the initial approach from Gerald to run the first What Everyone Wants.
She told him: “You can’t afford me.”
But he eventually convinced her to come onboard and the pair created a high street phenomenon.
Billy Connolly opened one branch and the stores were famous for their purple carrier bags and ads which used Status Quo’s hit song Whatever You Want.
At its height there were 40 stores, 200 employees and an annual turnover of more than £100million.
Vera and her husband threw a lavish party for staff and celebs after they sold up for what was believed to be a record price for a Scottish fashion business.
The generous pair set up The Weisfeld Foundation and donated a huge chunk of their fortune to good causes.
In 1994, they travelled to Bosnia to oversee the distribution of aid to refugees from the Balkans War, despite a Foreign Office warning against all travel.
They established homes for children with HIV infection in Romania, who had been shunned by their own families.
Gerald died five years ago, aged 79, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. He had spent time in care homes in Bothwell and Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.
