TEXTILES teacher Laura Gundich works at one of the best schools in York and is happy inspiring teenagers to follow their dreams.

But when Laura clocks off from the chalk-face at Fulford School, she has some pretty big dreams of her own to chase.

For Laura is also LGun, the label behind a new range of luxury and stylish leather handbags.

Laura, 25, launched her business while working last year in New York. She had gone to the Big Apple after graduating with a fashion degree hoping to get her big break – or at least a foot on the bottom rung of the fashion ladder.

Instead she found herself doing unpaid internships in PR firms by day and waitressing at the Hard Rock Café at night to pay the rent on her flat in Queens.

What’s more, it was one of the wettest summers on record in New York.

But it would take more than lack of cash and daily downpours to get the better of Harrogate-born Laura, who has a track record of coping with adversity and challenges. Diagnosed with arthritis aged eight, she went on to play ladies football at university. At 18, while most of her friends went off to college in the UK, she upped sticks and enrolled at a university in the States.

“I’m quite driven,” says Laura when we meet for a drink at Melton’s Too on Walmgate – after school, of course.

Her American studies ended after one semester because, says Laura, they were “not challenging enough”. Instead she completed an art foundation course at Harrogate College, then a four-year fashion design degree at Northumbria University, during which she worked for top designer Amanda Wakeley in London. She went out on a high with Pixie Geldof wearing one of her dresses to advertise the prestigious Graduate Fashion Week in London.

However, last summer amid the rain-sloshed avenues of New York, Laura had her Eureka! moment.

“It was the wettest summer in 80 years,” she says. “Every time I got on the subway, I’d have my sodden umbrella in one hand, my iPod in the other, and no hands free. I just thought I could design a bag that would function for me.”

Back in her flat in Queens, she got out her sketch pad and began working on some handbag designs. Soon, the LGun range was born.

“Each bag has a popper strap on the side to hang your brolly,” says Laura. Other novelties include a clear plastic wallet, ideal for make-up, which attaches to an inside pocket with poppers. Other inside pockets are padded, to keep your iPhone and Blackberry knock-proof.

The bags, which come in four designs and colours, are made from calf-skin leather, and look much more expensive than their price of between £165 and £195. The are available on line at lgun.co.uk or from The Dressing Room, Harrogate.

Laura has tried to keep her designs affordable. “You can pay anything from £45 up to £1,000 for a leather bag, but I wanted to aim at the person in the middle who likes to spend a bit of money and get good quality as well as something that is desirable, functional with a bit of design.”

She adds: “The idea with the Looking Good by LGun range is that you can have a beautiful handbag inside and out. I’ve designed the pockets in different fabrics so you can identify where you have placed something in your bag through touch.”

Launching her own business was a risky move – so Laura has created a safety net by qualifying as a textiles teacher. It’s a job she loves.

“I always wanted to teach,” says Laura. “As a child, I dreamt of doing hair and beauty, designing clothes or working with children.”

She adds: “I want to inspire others. I want to get them to the level where they can make their dreams come true.”

Meanwhile, Laura is working on a new range of bags – leather clutches with delicate patterns made through laser cutting.

Where does she hope to be in five years’ time?

“I want to see people looking good in LGun,” she says, beaming. “I want to have different ranges with a good line in the best department stores and some of the boutiques on 5th Avenue and in London. I’m the only person who can make that happen, so I’ve got to do it.”