A TALENTED young Burnley designer is to show his creations made from a newly-created fabric at London Fashion Week.

Louis Alderson-Bythell, 21, is a former Nelson and Colne College student, who now studies fashion at Edinburgh College of Art.

He is one of 15 undergraduate finalists selected to showcase designs in London in the 2013 FAD Competition later this month as part of Fashion Scout.

The catwalk final will see the aspiring young designers compete for funding and top industry placements.

Louis’ entry was selected from over 100 submitted to the competition this year.

The brief, Future Optimism, challenged students to “look forward and explore”.

Stating that “design has the potential to offer positive and creative solutions”, it asked the entrants to “envisage a key development or change taking place in the next ten years, and design two outfits which respond to it”.

Louis’ silhouette designs are created from a high-performance textile fabric called Silica cloth which is baked in a kiln with molten glass to create burnished patterns.

He said: “I feel privileged to have the opportunity to show my work during London Fashion Week.

“I’m really excited about the development of the fabric and designs in the run-up to the show and can't wait to exhibit them.”

The former Fisher More Catholic Humanities College pupil is currently making his final designs. The outfits will be judged by a top industry panel, including fashion editor and talent spotter Hilary Alexander, who will select one overall winner and two runners-up. This is the 12th year that creative charity FAD has run this competition.

Described by Vogue as an “undeniable springboard”, previous finalists includ-ing David Koma and Gaurav Gupta have gone on to design for iconic labels such as Vivienne Westwood, Alicia Stone, Whistles, Coast and Next.