Graduate designs collection for High Street giant

A NEW collection by Manchester School of Art graduate Louise Leighton hits the shelves of High Street giant Oasis this week.

The tailored and jersey pieces feature a wintry landscape print created from Louise’s own photographs.

Louise graduated with a BA (Hons) Textile Design last year, and has been busy working for top names since.

After travelling to Graduate Fashion Week to build up her network, she has spent time designing for George at Asda and Karen Millen, before spending a few weeks at Oasis where she was asked to create her latest collection.

Winter wonderland

Louise said: “I’m very excited to see the collection in the shops.

“I was given free rein to interpret their brief. A lot of my previous work has used digitally manipulated photographs, so I wanted to do something similar.

“After looking at some of the runway shows, I decided I wanted to create a really wintery feeling, so the designs use photos I took out on Hampstead Heath, along with others that I had taken on my general travels.”

Louise said that having so many different opportunities has been an “exciting” start to her career.

Interior intentions

In addition to her growing fashion experience, Louise is also interested in using her textile talents for interior design, as her course at MMU allowed students to focus on several different areas.

She has already helped with one house renovation, and is now negotiating for another interior design project next year.