Mango is a Spanish chain with apparently boundless ambitions; it currently has 880 stores in 83 countries but aspires to 3,000. In this project its role model is Inditex, another Spanish group, which owns Zara, Massimo Dutti and a clutch of other businesses, and which recently became the world’s largest fashion retailer with 3,243 stores. British fashion chains don’t appear to be so bent on global conquest.

Part of Mango’s plan for universal recognition seems to be to link itself with as many supermodels and celebrities as possible: past faces of the brand include (in alphabetical order) Naomi Camp-ell, Elizabeth Jagger, Karolina Kurkova, and Claudia Schiffer. The current faces are Lou Doillon, the pouty actress daughter of Jane Birkin, and Milla Jovovich, the rangy model, actress and singer, who has designed a collection for the chain. They will be joined in the autumn by Penélope Cruz and her sister Mónica, who will also have their own line. The boho Doillon and Jovovich and the bourgeois Cruz exemplify Mango’s carefully managed broad appeal; in the Spanish stores you see both teenagers and matrons shopping.

Last week, in the lush Marbella outlets, mothers were buying the Burberry-esque jewelled coats and the squashy oversized bags; their daughters were preoccupied with the maxi-dresses. I was pursuing one of my favourite holiday pastimes – spying on the looks that the locals want; I had moved on from Zara, my usual observation point for Hispanic trends, feeling that it had veered too far towards the good wife – more Stepford than the gutsy, glamorous mama played by Cruz in Volver.

I left Mango with a taupe linen smock dress, cut so as to minimise the chance of being mistaken for a mother-to-be, and reduced to €19.99 (£12.47).

In Mango’s branch in Regent Street, one of the chain’s 19 UK stores, the same dress was also reduced – but to £20. It seemed that the differential pricing policy I had noted on my first Chain Reaction visit to Mango was still in place: a lovely green, brown and white sleeveless Jovovich dress that cost €49.90 in Spain bore a price tag of £50 in this store.

This perhaps explained the almost complete absence of any customer who seemed more than 21 – every one of the sultry would-be Doillons looked as if she had strayed down the road from ultra-funky Desigual, the first UK branch of that other Spanish conquistador chain. Maturity obviously makes you question whether you are willing to pay a third more than customers in a chain’s homeland.

The teen crowd ignored the large number of chic-but-understated dresses, such as a brown-and-gold-print jersey number (£40) or a brown, beige and white print frock with a narrow bodice and fullish skirt (£70). They also failed to be excited by the display of white trousers (£16), the kind that Penélope Cruz wears out shopping in Madrid. For my part, I was impressed, but the thought of what all these pieces would cost in Madrid made me think twice.

The links in the chain

Mango’s 2005 sales were €1.1 billion (£746 million). The Barcelona-based chain is 100 per cent owned by its founders, Isak and Nahman Andic

Detail is retail

Layout: black and chrome, not particularly inventive, but chic 7/10

Staff: some helpful, some look overworked 6/10

Changing rooms: maybe a touch makeshift 5/10

Bags: a great mix of tough materials and elegant design 8/10

Overall score: some of the best in Spanish chic, but not at Spanish prices 7/10

Times recommends

• How I lost the gift of joy for a while
• How to get Coleen Rooney's post-baby body
• The A-Z of winter style rules