A HUDDERSFIELD fashion student has reached the final of the Young Designer of the Year contest.

Kirnjit Samara, 22, of Cawthorne Avenue, Fartown, will have her dress design modelled at a fashion show at Mela 2003 - the UK's largest Asian lifestyle exhibition - at the Wembley Exhibition Halls in London on October 10.

Kirnjit, a former pupil of Salendine Nook High School and Huddersfield New College, is studying fashion design at Batley Art College.

She entered the contest after seeing it advertised in a magazine.

She was charged with designing an outfit along the theme of From Monarch to Moghul, a fusion of East-West.

"I did a couple of designs, then produced one I liked. I sent it off thinking `you never know'," she said.

Kirnjit's design was chosen from hundreds submitted to the competition, which is sponsored by the Fashion and Textile Museum, London, which opened this year.

The finalists will be judged by fashion icon Zandra Rhodes.

The winner will receive the opportunity of working with her for two weeks.