Claire Alderdice, (26), who has lived in London for the past four years, established fashion label 'Berrie' with her friends Debbie Luffman and Lisa McAlinden earlier this year.

The label, which uses sustainable materials like organic cotton and alpaca fleece and operates a knitting co-operative that ensures yarn workers in Peru are paid fairer wages, was entered into the Ethical Fashion Forum's 'Make Your Mark in Fashion' competition in May.

And it was 'Berrie', along with two other environmentally aware clothing labels, which were awarded the opportunity to showcase their designs to fashion buyers at London Fashion Week on September 16.

Claire, who attended Markethill High School and Armagh College before studying textile design at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, said it was a "fantastic experience" to promote 'Berrie' to influential figures within the fashion industry.

"It was an amazing day. Out of the three fashion labels chosen to compete we came runner-up and won £1,000 but just the fact that we were showing our first collection at London Fashion Week was a prize in itself," she explained.

Claire's parents, Joan and Harry, and her younger sister Emma, who all still live in Markethill, as well as brother Neil from Portadown, travelled to London to see her kaleidoscopic prints being modelled on the catwalk. "It was great having my family there to see it and support me, and they are all proud of what I've achieved."

The label's first collection, which pays homage to the glamorous pin-ups of the 1950s with a modern twist, has already caught the attention of leading Fair Trade clothing company 'People Tree' and Claire says plans for a Autumn/Winter 2009 collection will get under way soon.

"Online store Adili.com is looking to sell 'Berrie' products under ethical fashion label 'Enamore' who mentored us throughout the competition, and we're in the process of establishing an on-line shop at our website, so it's all very exciting for us," she continued.

"We spotted a gap in the market for people who wanted to buy glamorous clothes which also happened to be made using sustainable fabrics. We wanted to get away from the 'hippy' image of ethical clothing, so the type of clothes we produce are colourful and bright, but they cannot be mass-produced so because of that we are looking towards the high-end, luxury market."

The label is already attracting the attention of the fashion press, with a mention on magazine website Vogue.com, and at the label's debut – which was held at the Blandford Club in London – some of the collection's outfits were modelled by Jen Hunter, who was runner-up in Channel Five's reality television series 'Make Me a Supermodel' in 2006.

"Jen was the perfect 'Berrie' girl. She's curvy and our clothes have a 1950s feel to them so she was ideal for us. We also had Jessica Kallgren-Hayes, who was runner-up in the BBC Three series 'Britain's Missing Top Model', so it's great to have models who bring a high-profile to our brand," said Claire.

The label's London Fashion Week debut is also the subject of a documentary for Channel Four's factual series of short films titled 'Three Minute Wonder', which is due to be broadcast soon. "Footage was shot from the beginning of making the collection right up to our debut, so it'll be great to see it on television," she added.

Meanwhile Claire, who also achieved a MA in Textile Design at the Chelsea College of Art, will continue to work as a merchandising executive and produce her own line of wall papers, rugs and prints, but hopes 'Berrie' will become a full-time venture. "We're currently looking at a studio in Hackney, east London, to operate out of but I do hope that eventually our clothes will be sold in boutiques across Northern Ireland.

"After all we're all from different parts of the UK. Lisa is from Glasgow and Debbie is from Brighton and we're all proud of where we come from and it's great working with friends – in fact it doesn't feel like work at all," she said.

For further information about Claire's designs visit: www.clairejalderdice.co.uk or www.berrie.org.uk.