The catwalk dreams of two young Bermudian designers turn to reality at New York Fashion Week.

Charda Simons and Rochelle Minors were both featured in shows last weekend after they won their spots as a result of their work shown at July’s Bermuda Fashion Festival.

Ms Simons said the experience was a dream come true.

She added: “I’m still on a high. I still feel excited that this happened to me.

“Never in a million years did I think this would happen to me.

“I have always had it in my mind, I always wanted this to happen, but I never would have guessed it would happen this soon.”

Ms Simons’s Street Lux label was highlighted as part of the Emerging Artists showcase and Ms Minors’s Rochelle Nicole designs were featured in the Prêt-à-Porter show.

Ms Simons arrived in New York on September 2 and, despite an early problem fitting her models with shoes, the show was a success.

Ms Simons said: “I was really pleased and I was thrilled to see my own clothes on the runway.

“Even before then, I had a few people asking me where they could buy my clothes.”

Her next project will be to make duplicate pieces, and organise a pop-up store to open on the island later this year.

Ms Minors added that the opportunity to show her designs at New York Fashion Week was “overwhelming”.

She said: “As I watched the TV screen backstage, I was amazed at how great everything looked and in awe about the fact that this was my work, I created it.

“I felt like I was on Project Runway, but bigger, and was just honoured that my work is worthy to be showcased at such a high-level event.”

She said her show went well and the crowd, which included friends and family, applauded her work.

Ms Minors said: “We had a press conference afterwards and everyone wanted photos and was yelling my name and just congratulated me on a successful collection and show.

“There was so much love in the room.”

She added: “The only real challenge I had was savouring the moment. As in all fashion shows, the anticipation and build-up was so long, but the show day went by so fast.

“I’m very happy how everything went and just feel grateful and blessed.”

Ms Minors will soon start to design her 2019-20 spring and summer collection and hopes to take her designs to another global stage for Paris Fashion Week.