Inverness designer at 'Dressed to Kilt' event

An Inverness designer, showcased her outfits on the catwalk at New York's annual fashion show 'Dressed to Kilt' on Monday night - the highlight of Tartan Week.

Sandra Murray had two of her Harris Tweed garments on the catwalk and two cashmere designs commissioned by Alex Begg & Co.  Her Macleod Harris Tweed trench coat, bra and shorts set was modelled by Ivanka Trump, daughter of American entrepreneur and television personality Donald Trump, whose mother Mary Macleod was from Tong in the Isle of Lewis.

Originally from Stornoway, Sandra's maiden name is also Macleod although she has been living in Inverness for 30 years.

Sandra is in New York this week to represent Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the fashion designer group that has been established in the Highlands and Islands.  She will be using her networking skills to help build a range of new contacts for future business. 

Sandra gained her greatest recognition to date when she produced the dress worn by the Queen at the official opening of the Scottish Parliament.

Sandra also dressed three of the evening's guests - Lorna Stoddart, director of development at Scottish Heritage, Claire Wilcock, designer of MacIntosh Rainwear, and Martel Maxwell of Scotland on Sunday - a front seat judge, who wore the Ballet Outfit in the Highland 2007 tartan.

As well as finding ways to help young designers in the north of Scotland, Sandra hopes to make business contacts while she is in New York.  She said:  "As I'm part of the creative group in the Highlands, made up largely of young designers, hopefully I'll be able to find new openings for them by going to New York.  Next year, we hope there could be two or three more designers going to the Dressed to Kilt event."

HIE works with the Sandra and other designers in the Highlands and Islands through the group, and is supporting her trip to New York.  Gillian Macdonald, creative industries manager at HIE, said:  "This is a great opportunity for Sandra to meet other people in the same field, from all over the world, and to see some of their work and share ideas.  Sandra will bring back her new experiences and new contacts which are important for the group of designers based in the Highlands and Islands."

Link to Tartan Week website