A 20-year-old from the Black Country who started designing and producing her own jewellery less than six months ago, has not only come to the attention of fashion bible Vogue she has also had one of her designs worn by a member of the Royal family.
Lora Leedham, from Oldbury, began creating her own jewellery after studying art and design at Dudley College.
Following support from both the Prince's Trust and business support agency Business Link Black Country, her jewellery has now had the Royal seal of approval after the Duchess of Cornwall sported one of her pieces at the celebrations marking 30 years of the Prince's Trust.
Catherine Bray, business adviser from BLBC, who has provided Lora with a range of support and advice over the past four months, was thrilled to hear her jewellery had achieved such a high level patronage.
"Lora came to BLBC for advice on marketing her designs. She had already done a great deal of promotion herself and we were able to use this as a platform to provide further guidance in terms of achieving her goals.
"To have already gained such a high profile 'client' as the Duchess of Cornwall is fantastic and we hope to be able to build on this as we work with Lora developing her new website," said Ms Bray.
Lora who now works with London-based fashion designer, Marina Avraam designing jewellery for her catwalk shows, came to the attention of the Duchess through the Prince's Trust.
"The Prince's Trust has supported me since I started in December last year and so I wrote to the Duchess of Cornwall offering to provide a piece of jewellery for her to wear at the Trust's forthcoming 3 0 t h b i r t h d a y celebrations."
Lora who works from a studio at her home in the Black Country started by selling her designs to local galleries before moving on to exclusive boutiques and fashion houses. The interest from Vogue came after she wrote to the editor, who was keen to feature her designs. ..SUPL:
