Last night, students in their final year at London’s famed fashion school commented on politics, sex and nightlife in one of its most subversive graduate shows.
For the first time since February 2020’s MA show, the fashion school presented students’ collections to an actual audience – and it was an optimistic, overdue return to form.
This year’s glittering students opted to celebrate rather than present us with a dark, dystopian future. Thank god – it’s the shot of adrenaline we all needed.
‘Fashion Central Saint Martins’ details the rich history of the London school’s famed alumni, past and present. But what does it take to walk down the famous halls, and what does the future look like for CSM?
Year on year, the art school’s BA Fashion Communication course churns out the kind of talent that finds its way to a shiny mag cover near you. 2022 is no different.
For the first time, and in a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Central Saint Martins’ students showed their collections digitally. With 106 students, that’s a lot of fashion, so we decided to break the show down into 106 words.
The 33 designers became bedroom bound mid-term, waving a solemn goodbye to the Central Saint Martins studios (they were paying for). But it didn’t get in the way of their graduate collections – if anything, it made them even better.
In the age of the image, Central Saint Martins’ recent MA Fashion Image graduates are producing ever-more stimulating work. So take a pause from the memes and look at some proper good photos.
Artist and Central Saint Martins graduate Stephanie Francis-Shanahan has whipped up the perfect antidote for one helluva crap year: a technicoloured photo book with ravers, dancers, positive messages and felt-tipped butterflies living side-by-side.
His eponymous brand is fruity, sexy, daring and above all, fun. This is how the 23-year-old designer plans to take over the world.
The Wigan-born designer references her Indian heritage by connecting the dots between clothes, identity and culture in sensually revealing knitwear designs, having already developed a distinct style reminiscent of the skin-baring British designers of recent years.
The French designer and Central Saint Martins student’s hedonistic take on bondage culture transcends the boundaries of wearability through seductive, larger-than-life 3D pieces.
Having graduated from Central Saint Martins’ MA programme this year, the German-born, Paris-based designer references sexpots from Prince and Freddie Mercury, to Roman sculptures and Robert Mapplethorpe’s black and white muscle figures – and they’re every bit as sexy as they sound.
The Athens-born designer created a Garden of Eden orgy for her AW20 presentation. But why so wet?
Emerging designers Jimmy Howe, Aaron Esh and Horace Page are proving that oftentimes, the most subversive fashion comes out of political bleakness.
Off the Rails: Often selling out within minutes, the recent Central Saint Martins graduate merges otherworldly game characters with going out out attire – to wicked effect.
