When Moray Luke's mother took her to see Marie Antoinette at the age of 10, it lit a spark inside which inspired her to pursue a career in fashion design.
Now, aged 26, Moray is fresh home from London Fashion Week and packing her suitcase for Paris to showcase her sustainable line of handbags.
Unusually, Moray, from Kenfig, Porthcawl, decided to forgo the popular choice of cow leather and instead has created her designs using fish leather which would otherwise be sent to a landfill.
Despite this major success at the young age of 26, getting her named as one of WalesOnline's 35 under 35, Moray shared it wasn't the easiest road to where she is now.
"Schooling wasn't for me," she explained, "academia was definitely not for me."
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Instead, Moray found her inspiration coming from vintage fairs, films, and the Welsh museum St Fagans. "I learned more there than I ever did in school," she added.
While traditional school wasn't for her, the 26-year-old explained how she spent every summer in summer schools, before attending university in Brighton "in preparation for what I'm doing now."
Like most people, Moray explained how she struggled during lockdown, however, it was during this time from her mother's kitchen table that her fashion line, Moray Luke, took off.
After watching several documentaries on fast fashion, and having shopped in vintage stores most of her life, Moray knew she wanted to incorporate "slow" fashion into her line.
It was for this reason that she settled on using fish leather as it would otherwise be wasted.
"Traceability is really important to me," Moray explained "It's organic Scottish salmon skin and the bags are handmade in Somerset, so I'm trying to be as sustainable as possible."
Taking a gamble on herself and her dream one evening, Moray emailed the head of UKFT - the largest British fashion and textile network - with a photo of her bags.
"It was one of those key moments for me," she recalled "I didn't expect anyone to reply but he emailed me within a day and started coaching me."
From there it has been non-stop for Moray. On achieving her dream, she said: "It's magic, to be honest.
"If I even talk about it I'll start crying, because it has been such a rough time and I can't believe my dream actually happened."
Moray credits her mum for helping her immensely through the process, "My mum helped me and wrote my business plan as well, because she knows it's the only thing I can and want to do in life.
"It's the coolest thing, the people who make my dust bags have worked on Game of Thrones and that is just the coolest thing I can ever say."
Even with all the excitement of London and Paris Fashion Week, the eco-designer shared that part of her heart and passion will always be in Wales.
"I'm so inspired by Romans and Celts, my dream would be to work with St Fagans one day."
For now, however, she is looking forward to her first pop-up stores, including one set at the Hay-on-Wye Festival.
"It's going to be great, in amongst the mountains, I'm so excited.
"There's so much I hope to do in the future, the handbags are just the start."
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