Baroness Bra. The Countess of Crypto. The Layabout Lady. The Duchess of D-Cups. Or, if we’re being (slightly more) accurate: the Right Honorable Baroness Mone O.B.E. of Mayfair in the City of Westminster. Whatever she goes by, one thing’s for sure: Michelle Mone—the model turned underwear tycoon turned Tory peer turned … well, we’ll see—is British start-up royalty. It’s just that, at this very moment, she’s a little more Prince Andrew than Queen Mum.
Let’s start with the résumé, because the baroness always does. Michelle Mone was born in Glasgow in 1971 and left school at 15. She set up the Ultimo lingerie company in her 20s (maker, most notably, of the “Boob Job Bra,” which Mone claimed Julia Roberts wore in Erin Brockovich), and sold 80 percent of it to a Sri Lankan company in 2014. (It was shuttered completely just a few years later.)
