A SOUTH Lakes teen is back at school this week after strutting down the catwalk with some of the world’s leading models at Milan Fashion Week.


Seventeen-year-old Katie Bryson, from Kirkby Lonsdale, made her catwalk debut for the design duo Leitmotiv after being spotted by a scout while shopping in Manchester.


“There were lots of experienced models; stunning girls from all over the world,” she said. “And there was me in the middle of them - Katie from Cumbria! I was smiling my head off thinking, how did this one happen?”


Miss Bryson’s first job was a modelling presentation for the design house Ottod’Ame in Milan city centre before her first catwalk show. 


She said: “I wasn’t nervous at all, probably because everybody was so nice to me. I had my own dresser, I could get used to that, and one of the designers held my hand until I took my first step out and then there were flashes everywhere. It was incredible.”


Miss Bryson was scouted by top London Model Scout, Cesar Perin from the ‘Unsigned’ Management group a day before her sixteenth birthday while she was at shopping at the Arndale Centre.

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“My agent is brilliant,” Miss Bryson said. “If it wasn’t for him, my parents wouldn’t let me do this.” 


The road from the Arndale to the catwalk in Milan was paved with hard work, from learning to walk in heels and about the world of modelling. 
“I meet some really interesting people through my agent,” Miss Bryson said.

“When he introduced me to the actor Eddie Redmayne, I nearly fainted. You should see the state of me in in the photograph, I look like a startled rabbit!”


Despite the glamour of the catwalk, Miss Bryson lives an ordinary life, playing classical guitar, going to concerts and spending time with her friends and family.


In future, she would like to study music production in university.


“I am really grateful to my agent, my family and my school because this wouldn’t have happened without their support,” she said. “I never know what might happen. I take absolutely nothing for granted.”