Local fashion designer Regina Simmons is gearing up for her biggest career moment yet, when she gets to see one of her garments worn in front of millions of televised viewers on the Miss World stage.She recently beat out competition from a handful of other designers, to be named the winner of the Miss Bermuda Pageant’s Fashion Design Award.Newly crowned Miss Bermuda, Katherine Arnfield, will be modelling her evening gown when she struts her stuff in the international pageant in Jakarta, Indonesia on September 28.Mrs Simmons said she was “shocked” to learn that her design had been selected — not because she didn’t believe in her creation, but because the whole process just seemed to unfold so naturally.“I didn’t have to toil over the design,” she told The Royal Gazette. “Normally when someone asks me to create something, and use my own creativity, it takes me a while to think about it because I want it to cater to that individual person.“But with this, I didn’t experience the stress that can normally come with the design process.“I can be a perfectionist and my motto is ‘Excellence or nothing at all’. I want everything just right and my client to be happy.”Mrs Simmons, 36, said the design for the dress actually came to her one night in a dream, before she had even entered the competition.She got up out of bed to jot down the idea and was amazed that even the first sketch for the gown came out great.The mother-of-two considered whether to make the dress for herself and, if so, pondered where she could where it?But two weeks later she ran into a friend who told her about the fashion design competition and felt the design would fit in perfectly with that.She took a trip to the fashion district in Los Angeles in April to search for some material worthy for a Miss World pageant; even though she was still a little hesitant about entering her design at that point.“I submitted my design on the last day of the deadline because I wanted to be sure that I really wanted to do it,” she said.“It’s such a big undertaking to design a dress that is going to be on an international stage and one that Miss Bermuda will wear when representing the Island, so it’s not something I took lightly and had to weigh the cost.”Mrs Simmons, the wife of Rev Cyril Simmons of Ebenezer Methodist Church in St George’s, started looking seriously into starting her own fashion line ReginaQ two years ago.The busy mom of young sons, Jonah and Micah, also works full-time as a credit analyst in commercial banking at HSBC Bermuda.She said she had to realistically measure the time she could devote to each project; and estimates the pageant’s mermaid style dress, with its detailed pleated train, will take her close to 60 hours to complete.Mrs Simmons started off sewing as a young child, growing up in Detroit, Michigan.She said: “I always loved fashion, so my earliest memories of fashion was when I was five-years-old designing clothes for my Barbie dolls.“Even throughout high school, I used to revamp my clothes. If I had a plain T-shirt, I would paint it or put sequins or beads on it.”Her mother was also a seamstress and had a business called ‘Garments of Praise’, where she would make clothing items, like suits and ties for other people in the church.Mrs Simmons learned from as early age that her taste in fashion didn’t have to compete with her spiritual faith.“As a Christian, I feel a lot of designs are becoming more and more dark or risqué, so I would definitely like to use fashion as a ministry, as well as a business,” she said.“I don’t feel women have to expose everything, so just being more tasteful with my designs I try and show people that we can still be sassy and classy at the same time.“Particularly in this day, I think we need to be aware that how you dress is sending a message and we need to take responsibility for that.”In the future she hopes to start a fashion ministry at her local church, where she can teach young people the basics of sewing and also include biblical messages about how God has fashioned us as people.But for now, she has her sights set on creating a show-stopping dress for the upcoming Miss World contest.Mrs Simmons expects it will be a life-changing moment when the beauty pageant airs worldwide and said: “I will probably hold my breath.”“It will be very surreal, just seeing something I designed on television or even in person if I can make it to Indonesia for the pageant,” she said.To see some of Mrs Simmons designs for yourself, visit her Facebook page ReginaQ. She can also be contacted by phoning 536-0313.