Retail guru Mary Portas is to open a charity shop in the Westfield London shopping centre to coincide with her latest BBC television series, Mary Queen of Charity Shops, which sees her turn her makeover skills to struggling charity shops.

The store will be called Mary’s Living and Giving Shop and will be modelled on London street markets. It is situated close to the centre’s Louis Vuitton store, which opened earlier this month.

Mary Portas hopes that the store will encourage shoppers and retailers to donate high-quality clothes to charity.

Portas told The Sunday Times: “A lot of people think charity shops are a little bit smelly…and a little bit irrelevant, but I want to change all that.”

Mary Queen of Charity Shops, is a three part series, which will air on BBC 2 later this year.

[Drapers Online]