As a fashion commentator you find you can generally pick where people's outfits have come from, as you are familiar with most of the clothing both in stores and for the season ahead.

However, this woman's ensemble was not one I recognised, but it certainly drew the eye to its clever construction and sophisticated detail. Always a fan of jodhpurs, I was particularly impressed by the trousers she was wearing – an interpretation that was flattering and elegant, which is tricky for jodhpurs.

At the time I resisted the urge to accost her and ask her where she shopped, but by that evening I'd been introduced and become a fan. It was Wellington designer Alexandra Owen, who turned out to be one of the "finds" of fashion week. She left an impressed fashion pack in her wake.

"No-one had heard of me before fashion week," she says. "But I had always wanted to be there, as it is the ultimate way to show your ideas."

Her ideas caught on and the young designer's wholesale business quadrupled overnight.

"I had a buyer from Los Angeles who wanted the collection delivered within four weeks of fashion week. I got it to them – H Lorenzo – and the clothes are selling well."

H Lorenzo is a well-known West Hollywood store that stocks mainly top European labels. Owen also attracted Australian buyers, and Nom*D's Margi Robertson secured the winter collection exclusively for Plume in Christchurch.

With the constant demand for quantity, it's hard to find original thought in fashion, and while it is apparent there are influences on Owen – Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Alber Elbaz – it is exciting to see something unique in her work.

Unlike most 25-year-olds, Owen is not into popular culture and her collections don't follow any particular theme. "I don't design for stick-thin people, and my customers tend to be people who treasure things that last and are made with love.

"I've done jodhpurs because people don't experiment much with trousers; they are either tailored or casual. I threw in some extreme versions for the fashion week show, though I'm not sure how they will go at retail level."

Owen is aware that jodhpurs might be too scary for fans of skin-tight jeans, but says, "if they are cut well they work well, but you can't please everybody."

Owen knows a thing or two about retail, and values her experience working in Marilyn Sainty's Wellington Scotties store. Sainty has also been both a mentor and her harshest critic.

Fresh from completing a diploma in fashion design at Massey University in Wellington, Owen designed her first collection – a small range of mainly coats and jackets – in 2004, for winter 2005.

"I showed the collection to Marilyn and she critiqued it. Her comments were mainly to do with construction, and to be honest, this process was probably a better education in design than I ever got doing a course.

"Marilyn is such a perfectionist. I was so lucky to have her guidance and to have her stock my label."

Because she wants to sell in greater volume, Owen's winter 2008 collection will not be in Scotties, but will be sold by Carlson in Auckland and a selection of stores in Wellington and the South Island.

Owen's interest in design started early. "I was always the dark, brooding kid sitting in the corner reading a book. Very early on I formed quite particular views on colours, textures and shape," she says.

At school that manifested itself in art. While she also took sewing in high school, "it was pretty much sewing tie-dyed pillow cases".

Swayed by opinions of family and friends that fashion was no place for such a clever girl, she didn't head straight into fashion design, though that was her calling.

 "I did a year at Victoria University (in Wellington) in design with a view of going into architecture, but as soon as that was over, I enrolled at fashion school."

Owen's clothes have a quiet beauty. Her palette is mainly black and white – with some striking silver pieces in her winter collection – and her clothes are of bespoke quality, with a slightly futuristic feel and a bit of Gothic style; the wardrobe of a time traveller, perhaps.

"I often toy with the idea of colour. For summer (2008) I've been inspired by the Bill Hammond exhibition (Jingle Jangle Morning) and am looking at using emerald green, tangerine and ochre, but we'll see. Colour definitely detracts from the things I like the eye to be drawn towards."

Owen's success at fashion week means she has a big year ahead. She has looked at further fashion education overseas, but she may have already surpassed the need for that. She is planning a trip to the United States and Europe to work out how she can maintain and grow northern-hemisphere business.

Her clothes will always be New Zealand made. A perfectionist, she sews all the samples herself and "can't understand people coming out of fashion design courses unable to sew". She then has a trusted machinist make up her ranges.

She favours natural fibres and her silk and cashmere pieces are particularly desirable. "But I also use some of the incredible synthetics, because you can't always have silk. I hate to use the `p' word, but people do like their clothes to be practical."

Whatever the year holds for Owen, she may think she's the unnoticed brooder in the corner, but while she continues to wear her own unique view of the world as a walking canvas, she will be the girl everyone notices when she quietly enters a room, or steps onto a plane.