Milliner Sarah has designs on a head start in reaching the top

The 20-year-old, from Headingley in Leeds, showed great promise in textiles and art while still at school and went on to complete a two-year fashion course at Leeds College of Art. She continued her studies with the college's highly-regarded millinery certificate, and will be showcasing her arresting designs at Wetherby Races this week.

Showing alongside eight fellow students from the course in both a catwalk show and exhibition, Sarah's designs may well make the female racegoers rethink their look next time they set out to make a statement with their headwear. Although she has not quite finished her studies, she has already set up a web-based business, hand-making hats and fascinators mostly from felt or leather to commission.

"I don't use the traditional sinamay fabric you often see in many chain store hats and don't work with netting either," says Sarah, who won the Innovative Use of Felt award from the prestigious Feltmakers Guild in 2009. "There's nothing wrong with them, but I don't make hats with that kind of look or for the woman who wears twin-sets and pearls.

Her designs are innovative and fresh, aimed at a younger clientele or those with the confidence to carry off a quirkier look than can be found in the high street. For more informal events, embellished leather headbands adorned with beads and feathers would certainly stand out in the crowd at a music festival – or at the opera. Sarah also designs clothing to complement her hats, fascinators and headbands.

"After doing the LCA fashion course I wanted to widen my portfolio before applying to university and felt that millinery would add to my range of skills," says Sarah. "I really fell for it. Unlike clothing, where you are making a design to follow a set pattern, designing hats give you more flexibility to be innovative and quirky because of the scale. You can be very adventurous and really go anywhere. Being able to design hats as well as clothing gives you an edge, I think."

But it does sound as though fashion for her means the look is very much led by the head. Important influences on her debut collection are the flamboyant British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and style icons of the music business Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani. "It would be an absolute dream to see my hats on either of them because they both like the unusual and want to stand out," says Sarah. "And Vivienne Westwood – well, she's all about fantastic ideas and wonderful materials, so of course I admire her hugely."

Sarah's ambition is to create her own boutique for one-off headwear, something to challenge the chain store offerings both in design and price. Before that can happen, she has further studies ahead of her and will be travelling to Australia later this year. "They have a lively millinery scene over there, with a lot of one-off boutiques and more people keen to wear interesting hats.

"Some of the reason that people don't wear hats much over here is to do with price. Two hundred pounds is a lot to pay for a hat you may only wear on one occasion. Through the website I can make hats to commission for around 50, depending on the materials used. Yes, the price would have to be higher if I had the overheads of a shop to cover, but I don't believe hats have to be as expensive as they are.

"Also, if we change how we view hats and fit them into our lives for many different kinds of occasion or even everyday wear, people

will get away from seeing the idea that hats are only for very formal days out."

Sarah is very young to be a student of millinery, say Leeds College of Art. Hatmaking is a course normally often taken by people who are changing career or already in fashion but wanting to learn new skills, with many students in their 40s or 50s.

"I've learned a lot from them," says Sarah. "They know things I've yet to learn – about running a business, for start."

*Sarah Restrick's designs can be seen on the catwalk at Yorkshire Post Ladies Day, Wetherby Racecourse on Thursday, May 20.