A Birmingham trainee fashion designer has won a top national tailoring award.

Joanne Baker, aged 26, dazzled haute couture designers with an outfit she thought up, cut and stitched, at her home in Erdington.

Her black- and- white dogtooth tailcoat, matching three-quarter-length trousers, cravat, hat, shirt and gloves, earned her first place in the Golden Shears contest where some of the best British tailors have made their names.

The former Great Barr School pupil trained at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. She now works at celebrity tailors Gieves & Hawkes, on London's Savile Row, but first discovered her talent when she started making clothes for her dolls and teddies at the age of nine.

Joanne was awarded £1,000, the coveted title of Golden Shears overall winner, and the best women's garment award.

She said: " This is a fantastic start to my career and I aim to go to the top of the tailoring profession. Dignitaries have started to ask me if I will design clothes for them, so I really feel things are taking off."

Joanne spent eight months of her spare time creating the winning woollen outfit, which she said she designed for a dynamic, sexy and aristocratic woman. It was judged on a glittering catwalk in London by celebrities and designers, including Chris Eubank.