By Betsy Everett
Wensleydale student Laura Cloughton, whose love of textiles and colour has seen her work alongside top London designers as part of her degree course, has been named runner-up in the regional finals of a global contest.
Twenty-two-year-old Laura says she was “delighted” to hear this week that she had taken next to the top spot in the North of England heat of the Society of Dyers and Colourists International Design Competition 2019.
She was competing alongside hundreds of students and designers from universities all over the world, in the contest which helps entrants develop their understanding of colour and sustainability in the textile supply chain.
A former student of the Wensleydale School, Leyburn, and the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington, Laura is in her final year of a textiles practice degree at the University of Huddersfield.
“I was delighted to hear the news. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting but my love of textiles and colour really developed while I was at the sixth-form college,” says Laura, whose work placements as part of her degree have been extensive and prestigious.
She has worked alongside London fashion and embroidery designer Mary Katrantzou, preparing samples and final pieces for the London Fashion Week collection; leading British fashion brand, Hope and Ivy, which specialises in embroidery and hand-drawn prints; and Pattern Textiles based in Bethnal Green, London, who supply fashion houses and fabric manufacturers worldwide.
Laura is the daughter of Carolyn Cloughton, and granddaughter of Mary Hugill, both well-known in the community as dispensers and receptionists at the Central Dales medical practice in Hawes. Father, Richard, is a dairy farmer. Her sister Emma, 19, is also studying textiles, at the Northern School of Art in Hartlepool, and brother Jack, 17, is studying land-based engineering at Bishop Burton College, Beverley.
