International model Caprice added a touch of glamour to a Lowestoft shop's centenary celebrations when she breezed into town yesterday.The star visited Chadds department store on London Road North to promote her By Caprice lingerie range and to cut the cake for the shop's 100th birthday, before signing autographs for eager fans.

International model Caprice added a touch of glamour to a Lowestoft shop's centenary celebrations when she breezed into town yesterday.

The star visited Chadds department store on London Road North to promote her By Caprice lingerie range and to cut the cake for the shop's 100th birthday, before signing autographs for eager fans.

And despite being the face of the UK's best-selling pin-up calendar for five years running, she was keen to prove her commitment to her new venture, even passing up an appearance at a glitzy TV awards ceremony to make the trip to drizzly Suffolk.

“I would always take business before any awards show,” she said. “I think I am the only celebrity who is actually running her own business.

“It is my own money and I do all the fits and designs myself. I am a businesswoman now and I am having the time of my life.”

Chadds' fashion director Wendy Cole said: “She is just so great to work with. She so wants to make her business work, and she is so excited it is doing so well.”

And with the mass-market appeal of her products growing by the week in some of the world's biggest retailers, Caprice said she was happy to help the independent shop who supported her from the start.

“It is a team effort and Wendy and I support each other,” she said. “The range is so popular now, she can't keep it in stock.”

The Californian-born celebrity has starred in Rent and the Vagina Monologues in London's west end, but she said that nothing came close to the excitement of watching her soaring sales figures.

“It is crazy but I get more out of women saying I make them look sexy than I do from getting a standing ovation on stage,” she said.