House of Fraser in Glasgow was awash with fabulous colour and chic style yesterday as Mary Portas and her model army paid a visit to the new House of Mary concept store.

The no-nonsense Queen of Shops proudly looked on as her specially trained, immaculately dressed, staff offered advice to customers, keen to snap up a piece of the retail guru’s easy-to-wear, modern, brightly coloured creations.

The store provides, as Mary intended, a pleasurable shopping ‘experience’, with British designed jewellery, cushions, bags and china featuring amongst an array of eye-catching colour-pop dresses, silk print trousers and slouchy tees.

She said: “We’ve had a few troubled years where people are not spending so much but they want to feel good if they are spending,” adding that she puts the customer at the heart of everything she does – and it shows.

Mary is involved in every element of the store, from advising on the layout, to hand—picking the items from up and coming British designers that are featured. She said: “Every piece that has gone in has had my eye over it.”

“I have thought about women, modern women today; how they want to live their lives and how they want to dress, so every piece that goes in there, I’ve got that in mind.”

Mary has long been campaigning for people to ‘buy British’ and her recent television show, Mary's Bottom Line, highlighted the cause and touched the hearts of the nation as she worked tirelessly to get people back into work and revive a dying industry in her bid to create Kinky Knickers.

Since the show, the pants have become a massive success and Mary said she has had to “double the workforce in the factory to cope with the demand.”

With the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics taking place this year, the striking 51-year old insisted “it’s a year to be proud and if we can’t get some leverage and some good ideas now then we need a good slap!”

Infectiously passionate about all things British, she had nothing but praise for Scotland in the styles stakes, admitting she is a big fan of Scottish designers Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders.

“I think there’s a particular style that is unique to Scotland it’s quite an individual style and the Scots are pretty canny when it comes to buying as well. They’re a feisty lot so I’m interested to get out and meet my customers.”