CATWALKS featuring outlandish designs and creative couture will make up the finale of Oxford Fashion Week today and mark a milestone for many emerging designers.

Fashionistas, including boutique store owner Ann Whorrall, have been beavering away creating, designing and pulling together collections to unveil throughout the event.

Ms Whorrall opened Olivia May, based in Little Clarendon Street, in October last year. It sells an eclectic range of garments from independent designers.

Since last winter, it has contributed outfits for Oxford Fashion Week’s runway shows and this season’s 12 pieces have now been allocated to models.

Ms Whorrall said: “It was a bit hectic. Putting the pieces together when you are a boutique is a problem. We’ve got ideas of what we want but people keep buying them.

“We have a group I call ‘French chic’ and some more romantic styles. The flavour of Olivia May is a bit different. We only look at niche designers with small collections.

“I am looking forward to getting out there and people recognising the brands we have.”

Also among the emerging designers, showing off her Great Gatsby-inspired collection, is Bianca Leach, 22, of Kings End, Bicester.

The fashion design graduate has been creating a collection of classic shapes and contrasting fabrics. She said: “The collection is called Enchanted and Repelled, which is a quote from The Great Gatsby.

“I wanted it to tell a story of somebody moving to a new city and exploring the sides of it that you do not see in the tourist brochures – things behind the scene; you look once and they look beautiful, and look again closer and it’s a bit distorted.

“It is really exciting but feels surreal to think I have done that all myself.

“I did it to prove to myself that I could create the collection and want to keep going with it.

“It is the kind of world I want to be in and feels like a step in the right direction.”

Miss Leach, like many, has been beavering away for months designing and sewing stitch after stitch.

The culmination of hard work and creativity has resulted in a catwalk collection of dresses, skirts, tops and shorts using fabrics such as cotton, suede and leather.

The designer is working full time at Temperley, a womenswear fashion outlet at Bicester Village, before heading home each night to work on her garments.

Before working in retail, the 22-year-old studied at Bicester Community College, Oxford and Cherwell Valley College and then Norwich University of Arts, from which she graduated last year.

She said: “It’s a little nerve-wracking, I have not had much sleep in the last few days. This is essentially my first independent collection without university or school involved.

“I have always liked making things and putting stuff together and grew up experimenting with different styles.”

Now in its sixth year, Oxford Fashion Week has returned to its original location, the Sheldonian Theatre, where it started in 2009.

Saturday will host two larger shows, as opposed to the usual four – a ready-to-wear collection and later the couture collection.

Oxford Fashion Week’s creative director, Tiffany Saunders, said: “The designers that my team and I have sourced are all wonderfully unique.

“Their creations are individually innovative, brilliant and creative.”

Previous designers featured over the years have included Matthew Willamson, Alexander McQueen and Valentin Yudashkin.