Michelle's jet-set life leads to Chilwell
It's all a little different from the wrap-around Manhattan silhouette she could see from her 42nd floor office at the heart of corporate America.
But traces of this former existence are scattered all over Michelle Feeney's office.
Lining the bookshelves are pictures of her touring India with supermodel Linda Evangelista or beaming into a camera with Liza Minelli.
On one wall is a framed, signed letter from Bill Clinton, when he was president, praising her for: "setting a bold example".
Michelle, 45, has also worked with Elton John and Mary J Blige.
"That's Lil Kim," she says, pointing at a snap of the Grammy-winning U.S. Rapper. "She was very vivacious. That was pre-jail, of course.
"And Liza is fantastic. In my opinion, you don't get to be a star unless you are slightly left of centre, which she is. But she's very, very warm."
Many of the stars were all signed by Michelle for Mac during her seven year stint with the company.
As the U.S. cosmetic brand's vice president of global communications, Michelle was largely responsible for giving the brand an international presence and a moral depth that brought it to the attention of President Clinton.
When she joined, Mac was in just six countries, when she left it was in 40.
"Mac's a $1bn-plus brand now," she says.
Under Michelle's direction, Mac became known for its fund-raising causes.
When she joined, Mac's Viva Glam charity lipstick had raised $10m for AIDS research – but it was a good news story few were aware of.
To raise the profile of the work, Michelle asked Elton to be photographed for the campaign, along with Mary J Blige and Shirley Manson from Garbage.
Elton, she says, is a "great guy who takes his work very seriously."
The profile-raising worked. When Michelle left Mac, it had raised $65m and the Mac Aids Fund had presented a cheque to Kofi Annan at the UN Assembly.
To launch Mac in India the Mac Aids Fund gave $250,000 to build a hospital because India has one of the world's biggest AIDS problem.
As part of the publicity campaign, Michelle took Linda Evangelista to visit the brothels of Mumbai where they were followed by British glossy Marie Claire.
"I seem able to act as this middle person between the creative world and the commercial one," she says of her ability to translate worthy causes into worldwide success stories.
"Working with Mary J Blige, you realise how vulnerable some celebrities are. She came from the projects [American public housing developments]," she recalls. "I remember sitting with her in front of this British journalist who was using all these long words she didn't understand. It was my role to make her feel comfortable and help her. What this job has given me is an ability to think about where somebody has come from and not to judge them."
Michelle's own background is probably sufficiently humble to give her these kind of insights.
A Midlands lass by birth, she grew up in Birmingham, the daughter of a wine shop owner.
She is fiercely proud of her roots.
"British education always gets downplayed and I don't understand why," she says. "I was educated at a Catholic school and then I did a degree in consumer science at Newcastle Polytechnic and I'm able to compete on a global stage, as are plenty of others.
"Britain always does itself down but some of the most wonderfully creative people come from this country."
During her time in Newcastle, she lived in a house of fashion students. When they moved down to London, she joined them and fell into the world of PR.
She met her first boss at a party and worked for her for free while sleeping on a mate's floor.
Eventually she got a salary – £55 a week. £27 of this went on her bedsit and £7 on her weekly bus pass.
"But I was given amazing clothes for free and lived on nibbles and champagne at parties," she says, a twinkle in her eye. "At 22, what more do you want?"
It was the height of 80s excess.
She worked alongside John Paul Gaultier and was backstage at Naomi Campbell's first fashion show.
"I was very junior," she says. "But that allows you to watch other people and learn from them.
"People in the fashion industry are like nobody else. They are wonderful and colourful. I love fashion for that.
"But, at the same time, backstage with those models, as a fairly plump 21-year-old, I felt glad to be me. They have to be so conscious of themselves all the time."
She stayed there for two-and-a-half years, before moving to do in-house PR with Trevor Sorbie.
In 1987, she moved to work with Lynne Franks, the inspiration for Edina in Absolutely Fabulous, and was entrusted with a series of high-profile branding projects.
"I remember watching Ab Fab when it was on and not finding it as funny as everyone else did because it was real!" she says.
"Lynne was amazing, had a strong character. She was way ahead of her time.
"French and Saunders were clients and popped in and out of the office all the time. I don't think Lynne minds the Ab Fab thing."
Then, she fell in love with a record producer, gave up her job and moved to New York in 1990. She started writing for British nationals about New York trends and interviewed the owner of cult hairdressers Bumble and Bumble.
He called her the next day and asked if she could do their marketing. So she set up her own company and he became one of her clients.
After just three years, she got a call from Estee Lauder to invite her to work for them.
"That's America for you," she says, proudly. "I'd built up a good reputation."
By that stage, Michelle was a single mum, just her and son Harry, who was then one.
She had 11 years at Estee Lauder, handling Prescriptives and Creme de la Mer before taking on what was then a fairly recent Estee Lauder acquisition – Mac.
By then, of course, Michelle had well and truly made her name.
Five years ago, she married her husband Mark, a British MD who runs Mountain Warehouse, and returned to London. Three years ago she exited Mac, intending to be a full-time mum to her daughter Emma, now four.
She moved into a house in St John's Wood whose former owners include supermodel Kate Moss in her Pete Doherty days.
Michelle has completely redecorated the house, all barring an etching which she believes is by the artist Tracey Emin, which she found beneath the downstairs sink.
She seemed all set for the quiet life.
But her reputation had gone before her and it wasn't long before St Tropez came calling, in search of an expert to make their tanning brand go global.
At first, Michelle turned them down.
"I had my daughter and I didn't think I could give the 300 per cent to take it," she explains.
But then she was bitten by the bug.
"I'd never had a tan but then I went for my first ever spray tan with St Tropez. It makes you feel so good!" she sighs.
St Tropez was invented in LA but the product really made its name under the stewardship of Notts entrepreneur Judy Naake who distributed the product in the UK and Europe, attracting celebrity fans like Victoria Beckham.
The company was restructured two years ago in a deal involving private equity firm LDC who appointed Michelle as CEO.
"St Tropez has an amazing name and the product is unique. It has all the raw ingredients to grow it into a global player," she says.
"It has 50 per cent of the market share in UK tanning. The challenge is to go global."
St Tropez's Chilwell headquarters has always seemed an anomaly. Its name conjures up the Riviera, not Ratcliffe.
Even Michelle admits: "I do ask myself how I ended up on an industrial estate in Chilwell, from Manhattan!"
But she appreciates the location possesses the kind of local expertise on which to build a beauty business.
St Tropez's 150 staff include three ex-Boots employees.
"There's a wealth of expertise from a beauty standpoint," she says. "We have built on the basic structure."
Since Michelle took charge at St Tropez, just over a year ago, the company has opened six department store beauty counters nationwide with six more planned.
It also had a tanning salon at the MTV Awards in Liverpool.
"We have celebrity tanners who have worked with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. We do all the tanning for Dancing With The Stars, the American version of Strictly Come Dancing," lists Michelle.
Currently the brand is largely unknown in the US but she's working to change that. A New York office is due to open in January.
The company made £50m at retail sales last year, up 27 per cent on the previous year.
Michelle resides in Nottingham three days a week, staying at Harts Hotel.
As in New York, she finds herself leading a double life, part businesswoman, part mum, relying on nannies and relatives to help with childcare.
"At weekends, I become a mum again," she smiles.
The home comforts she finds in Harts help ease her into the routine. "It's one of the best hotels I've ever stayed in," she says.
And typically, Michelle wants to instill in St Tropez the same values that have led her throughout her career.
"I came into this office and had to think: 'I'm not in New York. I'm in Chilwell'. At first it was a shock to the system but I have the opportunity to bring my expertise in here.
"You see the power you have and the onus is on you to do the right thing. It's not that difficult, really."
notts job: Michelle Feeney, CEO of St Tropez, in the boardroom at Chilwell C241108DAM1-3
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