My dress appeared on Pippa Middleton out of the blue

WHEN Rowan McIntosh painstakingly glued 300 Swarovski crystals to a blue dress she was designing for the annual Edinburgh University fashion show, she had no idea it would end up being modelled by the sister of a future queen.

SOUVENIR: Rowan McIntosh, who designed the dress worn by Pippa Middleton, still has a butterfly from another outfit she wore

The 29-year-old freelance fashion designer, who lives in Viewforth, spotted a photograph of the blue dress in The Scotsman on Saturday.

As the News revealed on Friday, it was worn by 27-year-old Pippa Middleton at the university's charity fashion show at City Nightclub in March 2004.

Despite attending the show, Rowan wasn't aware at the time that the model wearing the halterneck dress she designed was in fact Pippa Middleton - the sister of the future Duchess of Cambridge.

Rowan was designing clothes for Godiva Boutique on The Grassmarket at the time and the shop was asked by organisers of the fashion show to put a collection forward for the students to wear on the catwalk.

She said: "I designed three outfits for the show and there were a few other designers who had pieces in it as well. It was just a coincidence that Pippa ended up wearing my dress.

"It was only when I saw it in the paper on Saturday that I realised. It was quite a shock because I haven't seen that dress for seven years. It's really exciting. I had some images from the show on my laptop but about two months ago I deleted them. I had the photo of her in the blue dress but never associated it with being her at all."

Rowan, who graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with an honours degree in fashion in the summer of 2003, said she could recall Pippa being at the fashion show but can't remember speaking to her, and at the time had no idea that she was the sister of Kate Middleton.

"Generally you would just hand the models the dresses and see who fitted each one best and who suited each one best," she said. "I presume because Pippa was quite tanned at the time, the blue and turquoise looked quite good on her.

"I think she looked really good in the dress. It really suited her."

The size 8-10 dress, which took Rowan two days to make was sold from Godiva Boutique shortly after the show.

Rowan still has a butterfly that Pippa wore in her hair with another outfit at the fashion show.