Alison Jones meets Project Catwalk winner Wayne Aveline at the launch of his new collection.
 Designer Wayne Aveline turned heads and wowed the judges in the final of the TV series Project Catwalk when he sent one of his models down the runway in metal dress moulded and soldered to fit her figure.
However, he recognises that while it may have helped him win the top prize, which included a contract to design for Debenhams, the shoppers crowding into the Bullring store for the launch might not be quite ready for a big night out wearing something normally used for making cans of pop.
In fact anyone expecting the shock factor will probably be surprised by the elegance of the collection, dubbed The Line by Wayne Aveline. These are proper grown-up clothes, including a new twist on tuxedo suits, beautiful evening dresses and sassy cocktail separates.
Walsall-born Wayne has even ditched his trademark foot-high mohawk in favour of an understated combo of distressed jeans, black jacket and shirt, accessorised with lashings of silver jewellery.
 But the nightclub host has always understood the importance of dressing for the occasion. When he made a wedding dress for the television design competition, he surprised his Project Catwalk housemates by escorting his model conservatively, yet appropriately, attired in black trousers and white shirt. This was the same Wayne who only a few weeks before had modelled an outfit himself - in full drag - when a mannequin dropped out.
However, for all his punky excesses, Wayne is a professional and he has been pleasantly surprised to find Debenhams utterly supportive of his creative vision.
"They have given me total freedom," he says. "I feel very lucky because when you work for a company you usually have to design a certain way and they set boundaries that can feel quite suffocating. But Debenhams have given me total creative licence, right down to the swing tickets.
"I could have dressed up for this event, but at the end of the day I am here to represent Debenhams and I want to be a good front person." It might seem an unusual marriage between a department store and a clothes maker who has won awards for making fetish wear. But 33-year-old Wayne had the technical skills to back it up and it was his gift for tailoring, as well as being a dab hand at corsetry, that prompted the judges to mark him down as one to watch from the start of the series. "For me it is all about structure," he says. "What I admire about good designers is their ability to produce a different shape. I prefer to do that rather than make a pretty little dress and just throw lots of things on it." The former Alumwell school student claims Thierry Mugler as an early influence. The Line includes elements of his Project Catwalk final collection, which was heavily influenced by Victoriana, though he has taken the opportunity to streamline and refine some of the outfits in the months since the show finished, and to set aside the eye-catching but impractical aluminium. While busying himself with his work he also had time to watch the series, which was recorded late last summer. He was soon being recognised on the street, though of course he had to keep secret the fact that he had won. One of the biggest shocks to him, he says, was how strong his Walsall accent still was after many years of living in London. "I couldn't believe I sounded like that. I thought I had lost it more. When I was at college one of my lecturers said I should have elocution lessons because I wouldn't get anywhere with an accent like mine. But I want people to buy my clothes, I'm not exactly a singer or anything." The fact that he has already been approached about doing some presenting work for a fashion related TV show indicates that they are not put off by occasional elongated vowel sounds and lapsed aitches. Wayne, who was one of the more relaxed and fun loving members of the house, admits he was always surprised to discover what the other competitors thought of him. "In that kind of situation there are lots of different personalities. When you see the television programme and see the people you did like bitching about you behind your back you can't believe how two faced they are. They can f*** o** as far as I am concerned," he adds with a laugh. In the final Wayne was competing against student Luke Youngblood, whose over ambitious designs usually had him racing to meet deadlines, and opinionated Aussie Monika Rene.
 "I thought their collections were absolutely s***. Shocking!" he says, with a bluntness that is more amusing than mean.
"While we were working on them the production team kept saying Monika's was really beautiful, but when I saw it I thought it looked quite cheap. She'd just designed one dress and whacked a bow on it. "She does have a really strong style but she didn't really bring it out. She went off at a tangent and it sent her the wrong way. "Luke's looked like a typical student collection. He tried too hard to be different. I used to design that way, I was all about seams and manipulating patterns. It was just inexperience, you realise you don't need to do all that." Wayne is hoping that if his collection sells well that it could be the start of a long working relationship with Debenhams. His family have come down to support him for the launch, including his dad Graham, a musician from whom Wayne has clearly inherited his fondness for chunky, silver jewellery. "Wayne deserves the recognition because he has worked really for it," says his dad. "He did used to get persecuted a lot for looking different in Walsall "But he has always been creative, he has Blue Peter badges for it. One of Wayne's designs is actually on the finials in the rafters at York Minster after he entered a nationwide competition they ran." They were also joined by Wayne's friend Gary Light who was the one who entered him for the Project Catwalk competition, only telling him at the last minute. "I saw a magazine ad that said 'are you the next big thing in fashion?'. I thought 'I know somebody who is', but he would never have entered himself." Judging from the positive sounds being made about The Line, it seems that Debenhams have indeed backed a winner. For more information see Designers at Debenhams range on debenhams.com
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