SHE boasts Lady Gaga as her biggest client and has designed for other stars such as Jessie J, Leona Lewis and Peaches Geldof.
Now, fashion designer and milliner Lara Jensen is back in her home city to help inspire schoolchildren as part of Hull Bid Fashion Week.
Her break came after a chance meeting in London and, since then, Lara has gone on to gain a reputation for creating bespoke pieces for advertising, artists, catwalk, television and film.
Born in Beverley, she grew up living in Cranbrook Avenue and, later, Inglemire Lane.
A pupil at St Nicholas Primary School, Croxby County Primary School and later St Mary's College, she originally had her eyes on a career in the medical world.
"I was really quite academic," she said.
"I wasn't an ultra sociable teen, until my late teens. I was a bit of a geek at school.
"I never studied fashion.
"I always said I was either going to be a doctor or a fine artist.
"I always swung between science and art. Then, when I got to my A levels, I decided I preferred the more bohemian lifestyle that the arts has to offer."
During a foundation year, one of her tutors pushed for her to pick fashion as her specialism, instead of fine art.
"She obviously saw something in me," said Lara.
"But I even went on to do fine art as my degree. It was a very conceptual, theory- based course."
After leaving university, her choice of degree hampered her ability to find work.
"Apart from working in Ferens (art gallery), there's not much you can do with a fine art degree," she said.
Taking a job as a waitress to earn money, it was a chance meeting in London that proved to be the start of a blossoming career.
"I went to see a friend at the London College of Fashion," said Lara.
"I was drawing and one of the tutors saw some of them."
From there she was invited for an interview and was offered a scholarship at the college.
While studying her masters, she interned for fashion designers, among other small jobs in the industry.
Lara said: "I started to work for free and I worked for free for quite a long time.
"I saw the value of doing internships to get networking and a feel of the industry, which I had absolutely no qualifications in.
"From my work, I built a reputation.
"If someone needed something making or designing, they could come to me and I built my reputation from there.
"I kept slugging it out, working for just materials."
Her first commission piece was for the Pirelli Calendar.
Since then, Lara's designs have dazzled some of the biggest fashion stages on some of the biggest names.
As well as celebrities, her client list boasts names such as Mac Cosmetics and Vogue.
Now living in London, Lara still manages to get back to Hull.
"I come home when I need to focus on something," she said.
"It's nice. My dad is an art and design teacher at South Holderness and he has a wealth of equipment I can use, as well as getting him involved and using his as labour!"
Lara will be sharing her story at a fashion conference aimed at school and college children today.
She said: "I just hope they are encouraged by what I say and they see that with a lot of determination and hard work, they can get to where they want to be, especially in the arts.
"You can get where you want, as long as you stick with it, are determined and work extremely hard.
"The generation just below me has a reputation for instant gratification and believing hard work sometimes doesn't pay off.
"As long as you are determined, as long as you are realistic about your approach, you can get to where you need to be."
Lara said she hopes the fact it took her a little time to fall into fashion will help youngsters who may not yet know what they want to do.
"Sometimes there are things you end up being good at," she said.
"You don't have to know what you want to do at 16. Sometimes you grow into the things you end up doing.
"I never thought I would be in fashion.
"If you are talented or good at something you will naturally lead there, as long as you are grafting."
