In person: Borders knitwear designer Rosie Sugdon

These were the people, hand-picked by the industry bible, who it considered were destined for great things. Two years on, Katrantzou is a Vogue regular, has had a sell-out collaboration with Topshop and is worn by Keira Knightley, Claudia Schiffer and Anna Dello Russo.

So while Rosie Sugden may be quietly getting on with business, she could be forgiven for feeling pretty proud of herself. For the Melrose-based cashmere designer has just appeared on 2013’s list of the buyers, designers, merchandisers and entrepreneurs tipped to become fashion’s movers and shakers of the future.

You could say 25-year-old Sugden was destined to work with wool. “My father works in textiles – at Johnstons of Elgin,” she says, “so I was always going round the factory, seeing what’s happening and finding out about the whole manufacturing process.”

Interestingly, 30-year-old Oliver Platts, sales director of Johnstons, is also on the Drapers list, so she’s in friendly company.

“I wasn’t the most patient of children, but my mum was really good at sewing and she encouraged me to sew,” she adds. “I didn’t so much do dressmaking as things like cushions. But I’ve been very lucky to grow up with cashmere. I appreciate that it’s a luxury fibre and I like the fact that it has all that history of manufacture in Scotland. I wanted to be part of that.”

Her design ambitions took her to Chelsea Art College for a foundation course, then to Northumbria, where she specialised in knitwear.

Having grown up in Elgin, when her parents made the move south, she didn’t fancy living in the Borders much. “I thought it was really boring, so that’s why I went to London. But now I’m back here and I really love it. I don’t think I could do what I’m doing in London. I feel I can focus a lot more. I’m running a business, there’s no-one else to do anything for me, I do it all – which is fine and I love it – but it helps being so close to production. “The Borders are lovely – they’re very unspoiled. Getting out there helps clear my head.” However, the inspiration for her cashmere hats, gloves, scarves and socks doesn’t so much come from the Roxburghshire countryside – the river Tweed, the ancient abbeys and the rolling fields – but from somewhere slightly further from home. “In 2011, just before I started the business, I hadn’t had a gap year so I decided to go travelling with a friend for four months. We went to India, which was amazing. You can’t help but be inspired by the colours there because it is all around you. Everything is so bright and vivid.”

Sugden’s collection – with its neon pink mittens, marl beanies and bright orange fisherman’s rib scarves – is growing all the time. “I’ve just finished designing autumn/winter 2013 and that’s considerably bigger than my last collection, so I’m just expanding little by little.

“Maybe, in a year or two, I might think about doing a small knitwear collection, but at the moment accessories are where I’m sticking. And next season there is a lot more pattern, like intarsia and jacquard. And there’s a lot of bright colours and texture.”

She says being on the Drapers list is “very nice – I’m very honoured” but she has barely had time to dwell on it. Last month she was meeting buyers in London and goes on to list all the jobs she has to do. “There’s just so much going on,” she sighs.

“I do think there’s something happening at the moment with people bringing production back to the UK,” she adds. “So I think people appreciate that my product is made in Scotland. Now that Chanel has bought Barrie – it just sums it up. It’s Scottish and it’s high quality. It makes me really proud.”

Twitter: @Ruth_Lesley

• www.rosiesugden.com