Lisa Marie (right) with her winning design

Daring wedding dress earned top prize for student designer

by Sukran Sahin, Senior Reporter Wednesday, September 21, 2011
12:00 PM

A young designer fresh out of college has won an accolade for the first wedding dress she has ever made.

Lisa Marie Wheeler, who has just graduated from a fashion and textile design degree at Havering College, has won the Passion 4 Wedding Fashion competition.

The former Eastbrook School student received plaudits from the public for her daringly low-cut wedding dress at the Essex Wedding Show in Brentwood.

It took 30 hours to make but in the end it was worth the effort.

During the summer, online readers of a wedding website voted for their favourite designs from talented Havering college BA fashion students.

Lisa Marie and her friend Lacey English were selected as the two finalists.

Visitors to the show were then asked to choose which of the two designs they preferred. She said: “I felt excited. It was all quite emotional. It’s my first trophy.”

Lisa Marie, of Manor Road, Dagenham, started working with textiles at school and she even made her own prom dress.

She said: “From there I went straight to college. I enjoyed it and I did not want to do anything else.”

Although she loved making the wedding dress design, Lisa Marie’s favourite work is on stage outfits.

She said: “They’re more ‘out there’. I love Lady Gaga’s outfits. I’m doing some designs for an up and coming rock chick.”

Together with runner-up Lacey, she is considering a collaboration to design prom dresses.

The 22-year-old said: “We have always been quite close. We studied all the way together, then we were competing against each other and thought ‘this is weird’.”

Prizes include a weekend at Great Hallingbury Manor in Bishop’s Stortford and dinner at the I paparazzi restaurant in Romford.

This article features as part of the Post campaign Choose Your Future.