A DESIGNER from St Dogmaels has won the Cardiff Fashion Week upcycle challenge to transform a bag of charity shop clothes into a collection fit for the catwalk.

Carys Hedd – who has her own label called Wench – was chosen by the judging panel for the makeover of a woman’s jacket, men’s jacket and woman’s skirt in to a funky take on a traditional piece of Welsh clothing called the Betgwn.

Historically, the Betgwn is the jacket worn under the shawl by Welsh women in what we now recognise as the Welsh national costume. It is a fitted jacket with buttons, nipped in at the waist with a longer tail at the back.

Carys presented her take on the Betgwn to a panel of judges from Cardiff Fashion Week and Ty Hafan in the Welsh capital last month. After difficult deliberations by the judges, she was chosen as the challenge winner.

The item – along with others in her collection – will be displayed as part of a live shop window on 1 October in Ty Hafan’s Emporium store in Cardiff.

See this week’s South Ceredigion and Cardigan & Newcastle Emlyn editions for the full story, in shops and online now