Twenty-two-year-old Hollie Cooper from Brynmawr has won a prestigious design competition organised by Debenhams in association with the University of South Wales.

Welsh fashion designer Julien Macdonald officially announced the competition winner at the opening of Debenhams new store at Friars Walk, Newport earlier this month.

Hollie, who is a final year design student, was awarded an internship with the design team at the company’s head office in London, the chance to make one of her winning designs to be displayed in the Newport store plus a £500 gift card.

“I’m elated to have won the competition,” she said. “It’s been a really positive experience to take part in a live brief and I’m looking forward to the internship at Debenhams and to making my garment.

“I have worked on placements with a few fashion houses and it will be great to work with such an established high street brand. Julien also took the time to come and speak to us on campus and look at our final year projects which was an invaluable experience.”

Julien chose Hollie as the winner as he felt her designs showed a clear understanding of how to take an overall theme and carry it through a collection.

The print she used was vibrant and each piece of the collection had stand out elements and visible texture.

Irene Dee, Course Leader for Fashion Design at the University of South Wales said, “It has been such a fantastic experience for all of the students to work on this competition with Debenhams and Julien Macdonald.

“He gave an inspirational and motivational talk to the students, giving them his honest opinions on how to succeed and develop successful selling collections.

“We are looking forward to seeing Hollie’s successful winning designs produced and displayed in Debenhams in 2016.”

She added, “Industry linked projects give our students a platform to showcase and develop their work. Such live projects are vital in equipping our graduates with the experience needed to thrive in the industry.

“It is so important that students recognise that they are operating within a commercial world in which their creative work will need to be placed with realistic constraints of markets, consumer diversity and commercial awareness.

“The fashion students had the great privilege of direct feedback from Julien on their final graduate collections on his visit to the USW design studios. Julien gave each student individual advice on their final collection developments.”

The store’s manager, Clare Filer, said,”The competition was a really fun and engaging way to celebrate the launch of the store and I look forward to working with the University on more exciting projects in the future.”