RISING STAR OF FASHION WORLD ON HOW SHE
companies there. But in my heart I always knew I wanted to launch my own company.
“At art school, you are so busy designing to set briefs that I felt like I hadn’t really had a chance to design for me. I felt I had lost my way a bit, always drawing for someone else. So I took some time out to go travelling.”
Kirsty toured everywhere from Vietnam and Cambodia to Japan and Thailand.
She said: “I found I was getting out my sketch book for fun again – not to please other people. I was absolutely inspired by all the amazing birds and bright colours everywhere.
“I wanted to draw pretty birds and bright flowers and I realised that if I really liked what I was designing, then other people might too.”
On returning to the UK, Kirsty set up her own fashion company, Lime Blonde, and designed her Birds of Paradise collection from a studio she created at her parents’ Falkirk home.
She launched her online swimwear designs earlier this year and has been stunned to see them featured in everything from an ad campaign for an MTV show to top fashion magazines.
She said: “I got in touch with a company to help me launch my brand and they had lots of stylists among their contacts.
“They told me no one knew my business like I did and encouraged me to put myself out there.
“I was so scared at first – getting in touch with all these buyers from big stores and styl ists. But the feedback I have had back has been amazing.
“Be f o r e I knew it, Charlotte Crosby from Geordie Shore had posted a