PHILIP GREEN, the billionaire owner of Topshop-to-Miss Selfridge group Arcadia, is starting up a new chain of fashion jewellery stores.

The venture, called Muse, has already quietly opened for business at Europe's biggest shopping mall, the MetroCentre in Gateshead, and there will be a network of up to 50 stores, stretching from London to Leeds.

Green has teamed up with Alan Witzenfeld, the multimillionaire Essex businessman who dominates Britain's costume jewellery market, to create the new women's fashion accessory chain.

Witzenfeld is chairman and a major shareholder of DCK, which operates more than 3400 High Street concessions, including Topshop's Freedom brand and Miss Selfridge's Diva range. Now Green's Arcadia group - owner of Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Burton and Miss Selfridge - has formed a joint venture with DCK.

The move into jewellery is thought to be the start of a radical change of strategy that could soon see Green make a major push overseas, as reported in the Evening Standard this week. International expansion would come barely two years after he aborted a takeover approach for Marks Spencer.