This was the tense moment for Burnham-On-Sea fashion student Matthew Bowkett when he found out whether he would win the final of Sky One’s reality TV series Project Catwalk.
.Matthew clinches Barbour deal
![Matthew Bowkett opening the letter from Barbour [Photo: Sky One]](https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/matt-bowkett-barbour.jpg)
Burnham-On-Sea’s Matthew Bowkett has come out a winner from Project Catwalk despite coming second overall – having clinched a deal with clothing manufacturer Barbour.
A coat which he designed during the series impressed the bosses at Barbour so much that they decided to award him a contract – and his coat will soon be on sale in shops across the UK.
Matthew’s pictured above opening the letter in which he received the good news about the contract.
While the 21 year-old’s hopes of winning the top spot were dashed by the news that Kirsty was the overall winner, he was quite rightly proud of his second position.
The nerve wracking moment showdown came at the end of the final show of the Sky One series in which Matt and two other contestants were shown designing a 12-piece collection for London Fashion Week using materials collected from Marrakech, Paris and Shepherds Bush.
On a tight £4,000 budget, they were told by Liz Hurley: “If you think it’s been tough so far, it’s going to get even tougher.”
Matt was sent off to Paris in search of fabrics for his designs, but found it difficult to get the French people to give him samples.
He spent much of his budget on hiring a pattern cutter and staff to help sew his 12 outfits.
Matt was then shown interviewing some 200 models – 12 of whom he picked to parade his designs on the London Fashion Week catwalks.
With two days until the catwalk show, all the contestants moved into a hotel with their completed outfits, but another contestant, Debbie said she thought Matt’s designs lacked creativity.
On the final day Matt’s designs were paraded along the catwalk in front of 400 onlookers at the Fashion Show.
Liz Hurley said she was “looking for more pizazz” despite liking his outfits overall, and mentor Ben de Lisi said he liked Matt’s designs.
![Matthew Bowkett came second overall in the Project Catwalk final [Pic: Sky One]](https://www.burnham-on-sea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/matt-bowkett-final1.jpg)
It was then down to the final showdown, in which judges Julien Macdonald, Lorraine Candy, Ben de Lisi and Liz Hurley had to pick the winner.
In a tense few seconds, Debbie was awarded third position – just leaving Matt and Kirsty in the spotlights.
Moments later, Kirsty was named the Project Catwalk winner and Matt was officially the runner-up. He was quite rightly pleased with his overall performance.
Burnham-On-Sea.com exclusively revealed back in January how Matt was bidding for fashion stardom on the popular programme – and local papers and magazines followed our lead in the later weeks by monitoring Matt’s progress.
And what a rollercoaster ride it was! The Stoddens Road student was close to being eliminated from the programme on several occasions but somehow kept his cool to stay on the show. In the final of Project Catwalk he faced two other contestants competing for the top prize of £20,000.
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