John Lewis commercial director Kathleen Mitchell said: “With a laser focus on the way our customers are living, Zoe will connect the dots across fashion and home to take our products and services to the next level. She brings impressive lifestyle experience and an inspiring energy – I look forward to seeing her impact on our business.”

Last week, John Lewis Partnership reported its latest half-year results that showed department stores operations sales up 3% at £2.1 billion while against three years ago, they rose 13% like-for-like. And, importantly, fashion continues to be the best-performing category, growing 25% on the year. But sales in the home and technology categories declined.

At the time, it said a successful Christmas “is key for the business given the first half where profits fell. We will need a substantial strengthening of performance”. No doubt that’s where Matthews will play an important role.