A FASHION student from Barnsley - inspired by her hometown and the mining industry - has seen her designs grace the catwalk at London Fashion Week.
Holly Priestley, 22, is in the final year of a fashion design degree at the University of Westminster.
Competition was fierce but she was selected to take part in the iconic fashion show and was one of only a handful from her highly competitive course chosen to present her designs to some of the biggest names in fashion.
Holly, a former Kingstone School pupil, said her collection was a definite nod to Barnsley and working class and social history, drawing on influences from Northern Soul to the miners’ strike.
Her stunning menswear collection included garments with screen printed pictures of people striking against the pit closures - some even featuring her own father Paul - along with vivid 1970s’ inspired colours, retro prints and patterns derived from pub interiors and domestic homes.
Holly, originally from Pogmoor, said: “It was very personal to me. Some of the images on the garments are my dad. He worked down the pit and was affected by it. My granddad worked in the steel industry and I grew up in Barnsley.
“I have held on to these ideas and this was the big final thing and I thought ‘that’s what’s going to get me a job’ because I find it easier to talk about my work at interview when it’s meaningful.”
Holly said the day was manic and very hard work backstage preparing the models to go on the catwalk but it has paid off - her debut collection has already won praise from several fashion critics.
Holly said: “It didn’t sink in until afterwards when I thought ‘ phew, that happened’.
“I think the course was going for a different kind of style, something a lot more commercial but high end and wearable rather than being a crazy graduate collection.
“I screen printed it all and made it luxurious, really focusing on pattern cutting and the detail.”
She’s now back at university, busy completing her final portfolios before the course comes to an end in May and she begins job hunting.
Holly said the University of Westminster is regarded as one of the best in the country for fashion design and during her gap year she worked for Burberry and Pretty Green, the fashion label owned by Liam Gallagher.
“I would like to go back to Burberry,” said Holly. “The work ethic is really nice there and I can see myself doing high end too, maybe Gucci, but I’m not Italian.
“If someone had told a 16-year-old me that I would have been showing at London Fashion Week at 22 I would have been like ‘what?’. People don’t realise what they can do and achieve.”
