Women spend £3.5bn on 'celebrity' lifestyle

It's plastic surgery of a different kind, but last year British women spent £3.5 billion on their credit cards trying to copy the lifestyles of their favoured celebrities.

Virgin Credit Card's annual study found than nine out of ten women copied celebrity style from magazine features, but overall "celebrity spend" was down £1 billion on last year's total.

"It seems despite the drop in overall spend, our statistics show women still feel pressured to emulate celebrity style this year and, despite this slowdown, many women still see beauty treatments such as facials and manicures as essential," said Scott Mowbray, of Virgin Money credit cards.

Last year the average British woman spent £500 on fake tans, hairstyling, and accessories to try and emulate their favoured stars.

And three women in four admitted to using their credit cards to fund their quest for the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

Over the last twelve months British women spent £484 million on designer handbags and shoes, £898 million on hairstyling, and £138 million on fake tans.

Cosmetic surgery and non-surgical techniques such as botox accounted for just one per cent of women's celebrity spending.

The report also found that Davina McCall was once again the most desired and admired celebrity, followed by Catherine Zeta Jones and Sharon Osbourne.

Plastic fantastic Jordan was bottom of the list of celebrities people want to emulate, with soon-to-be-husband Peter Andre bottom of the men's list.

Brad Pitt was voted top man, taking the number-one position from David Beckham.