Tom Pike hails from Macclesfield and after leaving school in 1997 he did an Art History Foundation course at Stockport College. "The course there is awesome," he says. During his final term at Stockport, Tom specialised in textiles and applied mixed media. Although he didn't have any fashion drawings at all, he was accepted onto a course at Ravensbourne. For two years he studied womenswear. "Most of my designs took the piss - I was getting frustrated doing womenswear." Then Robert Carey Williams set the students a project and Tom did his first menswear designs and everything changed. "I felt so much more enthusiastic. I could relate the designs to myself," he explains.

After graduating in 2001, Tom undertook a three month placement at Darryl K in New York where his work included fabric sourcing and colour research. "I didn't tell them that I am colour blind," he confesses. "When red and green are next to each other they look the same to be. But a guy taught me a way to recognise them using shade and tone." Returning to London, Pike worked in bars for a year while he put together a portfolio to support his Royal College of Art application.

Jeff Griffin approached him with the offer of a paid work placement which involved a bizarre two month stay in the West country. "I got to stay at a dairy farm about a mile and a half from Jeff Griffin's house which is very remote. He let us use his knackered old Land Rover to get to the farmhouse everyday." It was hard work, but Pike reckons he learned at lot.