FASHION designer Louise Kavanagh has launched her own company selling silk dresses made in England.

The entrepreneur, 22, decided the time was right to create her own collection of clothes after working for a number of years in fashion retail, including for the past three at Bertie Golightly in Marlborough.

Miss Kavanagh, 22, of Marston, near Devizes, said: “The dresses are for the everyday working, busy, active and fashion-loving women. This came about from seeing and meeting within my retail experience a huge number of ladies needing that certain dress that will work for day into evening and work into play, which is unique and won’t be seen on everybody else.”

The former Dauntsey’s School and Fashion Retail Academy student uses a small workshop in Derby where the dresses are handmade, while the silk comes from a family-run silk mill in Gloucestershire.

She said: “It would have been cheaper to have gone abroad but it’s much easier to be here and to form a relationship with them. I wanted the brand to be a complete Made in England brand. It took almost a year to find the perfect manufacturer.”

Her brand and company is called Ottie and was launched on May 31. As well as selling them online at www.ottie.co.uk Miss Kavanagh has been given a chance to showcase the dresses at Cielo Blu, the Italian boutique in Devizes Market Place, and a weekly fashion market in Marylebone, London, every Saturday through summer.

The dresses are 100 per cent silk shifts and come in two styles and six different colour/pattern options.

Future products will include silk shirts, T-shirts, new dresses and trousers.

She funded her venture through savings and help from her family.