A TEENAGE student turned from catwalk organiser to catwalk model during a work experience placement at a fashion show.

Enterprising East Durham College student Jade-Nadine Rye was on work experience behind the scenes at Birmingham International Fashion Week when she was unexpectedly asked to take to the catwalk.

The 19-year-old, from Durham, set up her own business Fashionista JR, which organises models and staff for fashion shows and wedding exhibitions.

She spent the week’s work placement in order to gain experience of working for a huge international event, when she was asked to appear on the catwalk herself.

Ms Rye said: "A space opened up for some catwalk work and I was surprised about the offer at first but jumped at the opportunity. I’ve done some modelling before and I thought why not, it will be fun."

She added: "The whole week was just a fantastic experience from beginning to end and gave me some fantastic ideas to take back to help me with the future of my business."

Ms Rye is one of East Durham College’s Peter Jones Enterprise Academy students and hopes to complete her college course before going to London in September to study fashion buying or events management.