BACUP-born Betty Jackson is now a world renowned fashion designer and has achieved phenomenal success during her career.

She has received both an MBE and a CBE for her services to the fashion industry and has even made history after being commissioned to design the robes worn by High court judges.

Not bad for a young girl who just liked to draw at school!

“I just loved art and drawing,” said the former Tunstead Primary and Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School pupil.

“I remember thinking that I would just die if I had to go and do an academic degree. Most people from school went off to university in Sussex or Oxford, but I chose to go to art college in Rochdale. But I knew even then that I had made the right decision.”

Although her father Arthur owned a shoe factory in Haslingden, Betty never anticipated that her future would lie in the fashion industry.

“There’s no real reason that I turned out to be a fashion designer,” she said. “I have just been very lucky because it came out of the blue.

“At college I didn’t draw frocks in the margin of my text books. It’s an accident that it all happened, although I was fascinated with fabrics, particularly Chinese and Japanese fabrics. I fell in love with them all.”

Now, Betty Jackson Black is one of the most successful ranges in the Designers at Debenhams collection and the line has been growing since 2005.

In 2008, Betty was asked by the Lord Chief Justice, Nicholas Phillips, for help in modernising the gowns of the civil judiciary.

It sparked a mass of controversy with traditionalists objecting to the designs being changed for the first time in over 400 years.

“I got hate mail when I designed the robes because people didn’t want things to change,” said Betty, “But if you saw the regalia that they had to put on, it was so heavy and uncomfortable.

“Nicholas said to me that when he came from cycling to work, an easier robe was needed, something that was light and easy to whip on.

“At the time people would say ‘how dare this female fashion designer change our design?’ they really weren’t happy. And it seemed that there was a lot of press coverage concentrating on the bad stuff,” she said.

Betty has become a familiar sight at all the world’s leading fashion shows with her trademark walking stick. For many years people believed that a car accident had led to her having her leg amputated. Then four years ago she revealed she lost her leg aged six following complications she’d suffered at birth.

But Betty has always made light of the fact.

She said: “I am quite clear about the fact that the fashion industry is full of perfect people and I am not perfect. But I am not a model I am a designer, which is an intellectual process and it comes from your brain.

“Luckily I had a family who really were unconcerned about the issue. It was a fact and nobody got too emotional about it.

“Of course it made it more difficult for me in life, and perhaps I did over compensate, but really I never knew anything else.

“In fact I’m sure that it has driven me on and I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to pursue what I wanted to.”

Over the years the mum-of-two has won numerous prestigious awards including the coveted title of British Designer of the Year, Separates Designer of the Year and Contemporary Designer of the Year.

The 64-year-old also works with her husband David, who has been her business partner since they launched Betty Jackson Ltd in 1981.

Betty said: “My husband and I have been travelling a lot more and we are always very busy. The range in Debenhams is a success and there is a possibility that we will branch out online and run a small collection there.

“We are fortunate that David and I work well together – we are divided on different floors so that helps,” she laughed.

“To be a fashion designer for a career, well it’s just fantastic.

“There are a lot of people who don’t know what they want to do and by the time I got to college, I had no idea what was going to happen.

“Looking back on what I have achieved, well, it’s just amazing.