Billie Tuttle, a fourth-year student in fashion knitwear, won the European DuPont Hosiery Competition and netted £1,500 for her effort.

Some of Billie's designs ...

She was set the task of finding a new look for hosiery as part of her university studies, and came up with 'engineered look' that flatters the shape of the legs.

Billie, who is 22, admits she was inspired by Levi's engineered jeans that features a seam that curves around the leg, and she applied the idea to hosiery.

She not has only won the top award at Paris, but now a Leicester firm, Melas, has decided to make the stockings and is calling the product Billie.

Billie with some of the high-tech machinery at the university.

The young designer has already spent a few months at Marks and Spencer's design centre in Baker Street.

She also travelled to Ohio in America where she had an inside look at the American fashion trade with Abercrombie and Fitch, a top retailer of trendy clothes.

For a young lady who didn't even wear tights until she started designing them, Billie now hopes to put hosiery back in the fashion game.

She is ready to graduate later this year, and now has more good news: Selfridges has placed a large order for her design, which should be on store shelves this summer.

Learn about a Nottingham University high flyer or see some fashion high flyers from Nottingham Trent or top photography student Ikuko Tsuchiya.