A MATERIAL girl is enjoying shades of success after her designs were used by high street giant White Stuff.

Cleveland College of Art & Design student Ashley Wilson, 22, of Newcastle, was stunned to see her nature-inspired textile prints turned into two dresses, three tops, two skirts and a scarf by the London-based fashion house.
A major retailer in casual and lifestyle clothing for men and women White Stuff sells its designs through its own global website as well as high end stores including John Lewis and House of Fraser.

“I sold one of my prints at the Indigo trade show in Paris last year,” said Ashley, a third year textile and surface design student.

"I love nature so I created the piece using a repeat pattern of moths with intricate hand and machine embroidery in autumnal colours of red, brown and cream, with metallic highlights in blue.

“CCAD arrange the visit to Paris every year but unfortunately I couldn’t afford to go so I just sent my work to be displayed on the college stand instead.

“I couldn’t believe it when one of my friends rang me to say my design had been chosen by White Stuff, especially when there was work on offer from professional designers from all over the world. I still knew the chances of them using it for one of their collection was very slim.”

Checking the White Stuff website every day Ashley found no trace of her work and, pre-occupied with her final major project, stopped her search.

“I thought that they mustn’t be going to use it or that they may keep it for years before turning it into something so I gave up looking,” said Ashley.

“It wasn’t until last month, when I was browsing the web on my i-Phone and thought I’d take another look that I saw my print on their site.

“To be honest it was all a bit of a blur and because it was so small on my phone I rushed to find my laptop just to make sure.

“I really like the way they have interpreted the design and now I want to go into one of their outlet stores just so I can see them for myself.”

As well as using her print in their latest collection White Stuff has also offered her work experience when she completes her course at CCAD in the summer.

“It’s quite a scary though leaving college,” added Ashley, who has already set up her own web-based professional pages for commissioned pet portraits, home interior artwork and tattoo design – on twitter @Ashley Jennifer Wilson, Facebook Ashley Jennifer Wilson Design and at ashleyjenniferwilson@hotmail.co.uk.

“CCAD has great links with the design industry so I’m hoping to get as much experience as possible before travelling to Australia which I hope will inspire me even more in my work.”

For more information about CCAD courses contact (01642) 288888 or log on to www.ccad.ac.uk.