An award-winning knitwear designer from Nottingham Trent University has put a collection on sale at George at Asda following her success at Graduate Fashion Week.

Thea Sanders’ colourful, patterned knitwear was recognised at Graduate Fashion Week 2013 when she was crowned the Stuart Peters Visionary Knitwear Award winner.

“We took some of my collection and simplified it and made it more commercial. Then they sent samples to be made and there were probably about 15 different designs,” said Thea.

Competition-winning collection

She was scouted during Graduate Fashion Week by online retailer Asos for their year-long graduate protégée role and she started there in September 2013, straight after graduating, working in knitwear and denim design departments.

In November 2013, Thea was approached by Graduate Fashion Week sponsors George at Asda to design a capsule collection, called Thea Rose, based on her competition-winning collection, working with knitwear company Stuart Peters.

As she was already working at Asos full-time, Thea spent time doing freelance hours at Stuart Peters outside of work and then spent three days for one week working at their London headquarters to complete the collection before presenting it to George at Asda.

Sold out

“They chose nine of the pieces to be made which was great. It was really good working at Stuart Peters and seeing how a different company operated. It was really great when head designers were asking my opinion on things because it was my collection – it felt strange. A lot of the people at Stuart Peters were actually alumni from Nottingham Trent University which was really nice.”

For the Asda collection, as well as using Thea’s signature patterns and colours, plainer, simpler pieces, such as a skirt and jumper, have also been included. The collection has already gone on sale online.

“The people at Asda told me some pieces were nearly sold out already so it’s great to know they are popular,” Thea said.

Design and innovation

Since finishing her graduate scheme at Asos in September this year, Thea has already started working for a swatch studio in London which designs and supplies knitwear samples to major international companies.

Ian Mcinnes, course leader for Fashion Knitwear and Knitted Textile Design at Nottingham Trent University, said: “We are delighted and proud of Thea’s success. She is a very talented young designer who has a love of colour and texture and attention to detail which came through in her degree collection.”

“She is always keen to push the boundaries and the collection for George is testimony to this. It is no surprise pieces are already selling out. The degree course at NTU prides itself on the balance of design innovation, technical knowhow and business awareness and Thea is a great ambassador for the course.”

www.ntu.ac.uk