With his punk-fusion rural inspired countrywear, Birmingham born designer Upender Mehra has shaken up the attitudes of the gentry, writes Zoe Chamberlain.

Could this Birmingham designer have helped Kate Middleton to woo her prince?

One of the first photographs linking Kate Middleton and Prince William featured her wearing an outfit made by a company run by Birmingham fashion designer Upender Mehra.

Upender is the manager director of high-end country clothing brand Beaver of Bolton.

“Kate Middleton was on the front of the Daily Telegraph the day it was first announced she was a friend of William six or seven years ago,” says Upender, 46, who now lives in Manchester.

“She was wearing a Beaver of Bolton mini-skirt, shirt and coat.

“I had met her but it didn’t mean anything then. It didn’t click until much later, the significance of who she was.

“Of course, she’s big news now that she’s marrying William.”

Upender’s background is an unusual for someone who has ended up designing for royalty.

He grew up in Winson Green his parents ran two clothes shops and he became a punk, skipping college to go to concerts.

He says: “Believing in freedom and anarchy was the root of most of my beliefs. I was never a great believer in following rules and regulations.

“I was never one to conform – never did, never will – and this shaped the way I lived my life and the clothes I wore.”

Upender got a job in fashion for a menswear design company then started working with Beaver of Bolton, designing high-end country clothing that was worn by the likes of Madonna.

He says: “It was a totally different market for me. I’d always just walked past country clothing shops before.

“I felt the clothes were old-fashioned and lazily-designed.

“Country clothing is a very elitist market – the gamekeepers wear a different tweed to the landowners.

“And suddenly here I was in this big melting pot with a great big wooden spoon.”

Beaver of Bolton has been manufacturing traditional shooting and fishing attire since the 1960s.

But foot-and-mouth disease made it one of the less likely casualties of the national agricultural disaster due to people no longer buying country clothes.

When the company collapsed, Upender and the former MD opened it again and changes were made.

Upender says: “I decided I wanted to do something completely separate, I wanted to take a risk designing country clothes that had a punk edge.

“And so I set up LiBErty FREEdom, a new company selling country clothing based on a duchess versus punk feel – a quintessentially English-inspired collection made in Britain but, with the biggest twist of all, designed by a working class Asian lad.

“Luckily for me, the first people to see the LiBErty FREEdom range loved it. And it’s been a big success ever since. Now it’s a bigger success than Beaver of Bolton.”

Prices range from £95 for a skirt to £750 for a coat.

In the Midlands, it is stocked in Allcocks in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire and Cotswold Country Living in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

But life wasn’t always plain-sailing for passionate designer Upender.

In a story of true love and rebellion, Upender and his wife Tracey ran away to Manchester to be together as their parents didn’t agree to them dating due to their cultural differences.

Upender says: “Tracey and I met at school when we were 11 and got together in around 1980 when we were 15.

“Tracey’s father didn’t like me because I wasn’t white.

“Her parents were stricter than mine but, when I told mine, they weren’t happy because of tradition.

“We went to Manchester with just a bin bag of stuff and squatted at a friend’s house for four or five months. We were 19.

“If one set of our parents came to visit we would hide the other’s stuff and pretend we lived there alone.

“When we came home, we stayed with our families separately. The stupid thing was in Birmingham we would walk 80 paces apart just in case our aunts or uncles or someone in the family spotted us.”

Upender went to Manchester Polytechnic as it was called then, to study fashion and, in his final year, Tracey became pregnant.

When their son Aaron, now 21, was born, Tracey became an outcast in her family.

Upender says: “I’d go to see my family without Aaron. Because of the hypocrisy of people around me, it was like he didn’t exist.

“About a year after Aaron was born, Tracey took him to her parents house for Christmas. Her dad ignored him. They didn’t see Aaron for years which was sad.”

The couple went on to have a daughter Ela-Rain, now 15, Tracey got a degree and both she and Upender reunited with their families.

They now all enjoy spending time together.

Upender says: “Once, my wife and I were so broke, I remember walking down the street in Manchester searching for coins – today I am the owner and designer of LiBErty FREEdom and the MD of Beaver of Bolton.

“I pass the designs I feel are too safe to Beaver of Bolton and that has upped the profile of this brand too.

“LiBErty FREEdom is stocked throughout the UK and is really big in Japan. We will often have people flying in from Tokyo for a four or five hour meeting to look at samples and place orders.

“It’s a growing market which is very positive for us. It’s also becoming popular in Europe and with major retailers in America. It’s grown by itself through word of mouth.

“We did the first ever fashion show to be held at Sandhurst last August. David Cameron was there.

“The fact it is made in England is very important. Country clothing is very traditional and very British. Some companies use the strap line it is developed in England and go on about being British but then have it made abroad.

“I could go to Portugal and have it made quicker and cheaper there but I think it’s important to support English companies because once these companies and skills are gone they’re gone.

“My first contact with fashion came from my mum and dad – and their ethos of ‘work hard, do your best and always hold your head up high’ became my mantra for life.”

www.libertyfreedom.co.uk