Afternoon and evening fashion shows were held on Wednesday, offering about 25 students the opportunity to showcase their designs in front of a packed Derngate audience.

Following hot on the heels of the London Graduate Fashion Week, this was the second time many of the students had been given the chance to display their work on a catwalk.

Professional models donned a dazzling array of styles, including sequin-encrusted evening dresses, leather mini dresses and woolly hats, and this diversity of design was recognised with an assortment of awards given to students.

Of the year two students, Onyedika Tate and Charlotte Di Cataldo won both leathersellers' bursaries and a £500 Leslie Church Memorial award. A leathersellers' bursary was also given to Alice Parry.

The winning year three students were Catherine Neville, who scooped the Hensmans award for creative commitment, and Craig Fellows, who won the Leigh Cooke Colour in Design award.

Younger school-age designers were also recognised in a competition to design a dress for the pop singer Lily Allen to wear to Glastonbury.

James Burrows, from Peterborough Regional College, won the award in the years 12 and 13 category, while Elin Carmichael, from Brook Weston School in Corby, clinched the title for the years 10 and 11 section.

Jane Mills, the university's head of fashion, said: "The students have worked incredibly hard and have been totally dedicated.

"The collections also went down incredibly well at the Graduate Fashion Week in London and we had two collections go through to the gala awards."

Famous faces viewing the work of Northampton students at the London show included Pixie Geldof and Claudia Schiffer.

Meanwhile, Northamptonshire writer and broadcaster Andrew Collins, who was among the Northampton fashion show guests on Wednesday evening, has included an internet blog about the event on his webpage www.wherediditallgoright.com.

He wrote: "As it's Northampton, I am deeply biased, but the costumes that were stomped up and down the runway for two hours seemed of a very high standard.

"They were always arresting, often impractical, occasionally arch, immaculately made and, as vice chancellor Anne Tate said in her opening address, 'cutting edge'."