A student who created a costume for Willy Wonka inspired by the look of David Bowie has won a national competition.

Kathryn Weaving, of Scotby, near Carlisle, was working at the Royal Opera House in London when she spotted the competition at a West End theatre where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is playing.

The former Austin Friars pupil entered The Imagination Awards - designed to encourage creativity among budding theatre designers - and came top of her age category when the winning entries were selected on Friday.

And film and stage director Sam Mendes, who used to be married to actress Kate Winslet, was judging the competition. He also directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane.

Surprised to have won, she said: "I literally had five or six days to get my competition entries together. It was a fast turn around and I was uploading the images three minutes before the deadline.

"I like using historical references and I looked at 1960s fashions. I saw images of David Bowie and I thought that was like Wonka."

Kathryn, 19, said her brief for the competition was quite "loose" but that she used different fabrics and textures for costumes for the main characters like Charlie, Grandpa Joe, Augustus Gloop and Veruca Salt.

She has won a VIP trip to go behind the scenes at the West End show and meet the creative team involved with the production.

Kathryn, who has just finished her first year in performance costume at Edinburgh University, said: "It's a really good thing to help me on my way. It will be really good to see the environment that it's in. I've worked on a lot of amateur theatre but seeing how they do it in a professional environment will be really a really good experience."

She is already on the look out for more competition to enter as she enjoyed the challenge of working to a brief.

Producer Caro Newling said: “Imagination is at the heart of all of Roald Dahl’s work and none more so than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Through the Imagination Awards we’ve seen inventions and designs that rival Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket’s boundless creations.

"It’s been a privilege to choose our winners and to be able to engage with a national appetite for the opportunity to connect with creative industries.”

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has quickly become one of the West End’s most popular and successful stage musicals, and recently celebrated its 1,000th performance.

It also won two Olivier awards in April 2014, and has broken records at the Theatre Royal, where it has been seen by over 2 million people since it opened in June 2013.

It is currently taking bookings until January 2017.