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The designer behind Hilary Duff's tour dress

Lynette HorsburghNorth West
News imageMICHAEL DRUMMOND Hilary Duff is standing on stage with her arm in the air, holding a microphone, while smiling. She is wearing a gold dress with a long fringe at the bottom. MICHAEL DRUMMOND
Hilary Duff wore one of Paul Aaron's dresses for her show at New York's Madison Square Garden

As a child, Paul Aaron can remember his mum shouting at him for cutting up her party dresses to make clothes for his Barbie dolls.

But decades later, his mother Ali is a lot more understanding as his coveted knitwear designs have been worn by some of the world's most famous faces including Kylie Jenner, Shakira and Zara Larsson.

Aaron, from Hooton, near Chester, said he had to pinch himself earlier this month when Hilary Duff wore his statement dress during her The Lucky Me Tour at New York's Madison Square Garden.

"It was crazy," said the 31-year-old, who loved watching the TV show Lizzie McGuire as a child where Duff plays the main character.

His fashion career began as a student at Central Saint Martins in London where he created a dress by knitting bin bags together.

Impressed by his work, his tutor encouraged him to specialise in knitwear and he has never looked back.

News imagePaul Aaron Paul Aaron, who is wearing a baseball hat and glasses, is taking a selfie in a mirror. Paul Aaron
Aaron said seeing huge stars wearing his work was "surreal"

He was still at university when Rita Ora's stylist reached out to him to ask him to make a design for the star for Manchester Pride in 2018.

The former Liverpool Community College student said he "jumped at the chance" and made a multi-coloured bodysuit.

While Aaron said he was proud of his designs, he said he was too busy working on his next project to dwell on how far he had come.

He creates his designs without any help from machinery, which can take weeks if not months to complete.

News imageCarl Sukonik Singer Rita Ora with long blond hair in a high ponytail performing on stage in 2018 wearing a multi-coloured feather coat and lilac, yellow, navy and turquoise knitted bodysuit with feathers. The stage background is purple and pink with white spotlights shining on her.Carl Sukonik
Aaron said he "jumped at the chance" to make something for Rita Ora to match a feather coat by Gui Rosa

Duff's dress took him more than 500 hours to make.

"I used around 20,000 glass beads, hand weaved between crochet stars to create my signature fabrication," he said.

"Heavily embellished with over 2000 meters of crystal chains for movement and sparkle.

"The shine from the fabric comes from the glass Toho Beads that I use.

"They're weaved through different directions to catch light from various angles.

"They're lined with silver to create the light reflect."

News imageMICHAEL DRUMMOND Hilary Duff is standing on stage and is holding a microphone, while smiling. She is wearing a gold dress with a long fringe at the bottom. MICHAEL DRUMMOND
Aaron said it was "crazy" to see Duff in his design during her show at Madison Square Garden

Aaron said he was going to see Duff's tour when she plays at Manchester's AO Arena on 12 September.

"Hopefully she is wearing the dress," he said, adding singers often change outfits so there was no guarantee she would be wearing it.

He said if he could pick one star to design a piece for then it would have to be "the queen of fashion Lady Gaga".

"I loved her growing up. I think she would really suit my designs."

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