Lexi’s award-winning project puts fashion on the menu

19 June 2018

Student designs trends-based dessert café

A student from the Wirral has combined her love of food and fashion to draw up award-winning plans for an eatery with a difference.

22-year-old Lexi Murrant has created the concept of an immersive trends-based dessert café for her final project as part of her degree in fashion promotion from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).

Themed around online fashion retailer ASOS, the plans include a 100 per cent plant-based vegan menu, with new dishes introduced as the seasons change, an app through which customers can order and themed rooms including Violet Dreamz, Tropical Haze and Yellow Mellow.

Her work has already won a Lancashire Arts Festival Award in the Fashion (Promotion) category, which is sponsored by Creative Lancashire; Lancashire County Council’s team dedicated to raising the profile of creative industries in the area. She was also shortlisted for three accolades at Graduate Fashion Week.

Lexi studied law and maths at Calday Grammar School Sixth Form, but had dreamt of becoming a fashion designer as a little girl. With no relevant qualifications, it was her passion for the industry that led her to UCLan.

"When I looked around UCLan I just knew it felt right for me. My tutor, Eve Astle, has been amazing. She really believed in me and pushed me to continue to do better."

Lexi said: “I didn’t come from a creative background academically, but I’ve always been passionate about fashion – I knew I wanted to pursue a career which would give me something to get out of bed for in the morning!

“When I looked around UCLan I just knew it felt right for me. My tutor, Eve Astle, has been amazing. She really believed in me and pushed me to continue to do better.

“Along with fashion, another of my passions is food and I live a vegan lifestyle. My project was the perfect way to combine two areas I feel strongly about. It would be a dream to open a café like this one day, it’s somewhere I think would be fantastic for fashion lovers and also a way of showing how a vegan diet doesn’t have to compromise on taste.”

After graduation, Lexi is taking three months off to go travelling around Asia with her boyfriend. She added: “Preston will always have a place in my heart!”