All of these designers could be the future

Once a year, talent-hungry press, buyers and the cultural glitterati make their way down to King’s Cross, the hallowed site of Central Saint Martins. The objective? To sniff out the next hot thing in the fashionsphere.

And indeed, the institution has form, birthing greats such as John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and Phoebe Philo, plus countless newcomers.

For 2025’s outing, it was business as usual. The newly graduated students – 40 of which presented their collections last night on the school’s ground floor – delivered an electrifying show, reminding us, once again, that the kids are alright. A robotic dog walked the runway (Linus Stueben); models wore live camera shields (HongJi Yan) or wheeled steel dresses (Jada Tudor); and everyone from A$AP Nast through to Burberry creative director and L’Oréal prize judge, Daniel Lee, showed face.

Trying to pick out one throughline is optimistic. Still, there were notable tropes apparent across the board: saccharine fuchsia designs, latex, and cardboard manipulated constructions. At a time when the fashion industry feels especially precarious and major houses are erring on the side of creative caution, the event served as a like-it-or-lump-it exercise in garment design. Sure, a lot of this wouldn’t fly in Milan, but that’s kind of the point.

Ahead of the 7pm show, we joined the designers backstage for an insight into their worlds. The mood was chaotic but jubilant. Vapes were surreptitiously sucked and tears held back.

Below, meet the new couturiers to watch.

What was the idea behind your collection?

It’s based on this true story of a UFO crash that happened in Aurora, Texas. I wanted to imagine what would happen if this town buried [an] alien. Would they be doomed to become this thing they fear? Over the course of the collection, the pieces go from relatively recognisable, slowly transforming into alien-like creatures. I wanted it to be about the Southern mentality in the United States: anything that’s different is buried.

How did you work on the constructions?

I really wanted it to be balls-to-the-wall crazy but very haute-couture methods. The red coat had 300,000 beads placed on by hand, which took me like a year. And then the final look was a collaboration with Straytukay. He’s a designer who does lots with Rick Owens, so we did those with latex balloons and then we covered them in a textile exterior.

What’s next for you?

First things first: having a little sleep. I’d really love to keep doing what I’m doing now, making pieces for non-binary, plus-sized and mid-sized people.

Fabulous show! What was the concept?

The collection was called ​“The Venice of Essex”. Basically, there was a flood in my hometown of Wickford in 1958. I wanted to use it as a metaphor for my struggles growing up queer in a closed-off community. I explored this idea of the town carnival and what the flood would have looked like on the day of the town carnival.

How did you channel that in the clothing?

I created dissolving textiles and hats that have water systems inside of them. The rain falls down onto the textiles, and they dissolve away and reveal [other] colours – my true self.

Is this the first place that you studied fashion?

Yeah, I did one year of fashion studies at the London College of Fashion, specialising in menswear, but I always knew that I wanted to come to Central Saint Martins. I felt like this was where I really belonged. Ever since I was little – and you can see this in the collection – I was always crafting and creating. The paper used in the collection – all of these childhood materials – have trickled into it.

What was the concept for your show?

This project is about my migration journey. I was born in Ireland, lived in Nigeria but also lived in the UK – I went to boarding school in Kent. So it’s about displacement and taking the context of different places and then reinterpreting them in a new space. It’s a lot about my upbringing in Lagos, but then also connecting it to how I was raised in England.

The materials were fascinating.

I worked with a lot of things [from] within my surroundings – like metal work, brooms found in my house. I actually went back home for research to Lagos, then to Kano in northern Nigeria, where the textile industry is. I got some leather made there, and then also some indigo-dyed fabrics. I’ve got some leather that I used to make the shoes, wax cotton that I got [from] Barbour, donated fabrics and also materials from my internship at Ferragamo.

What has been your happiest moment during the course?

When people started understanding what I was trying to say.

We loved the foam coat and dress. How did you come up with those?

The foam – and the pipe cleaners – were taken from my upbringing. I moved to Bristol when I was 10, but lived in Thanet [in Kent] before, and obviously it’s a place that’s changed a lot. So, it’s about memory and how you think about a place and visualise it when it no longer exists in [the same] way. I was looking at a lot of my old drawings and started experimenting with [foam] over the summer. It just expanded into this [points to the foam coat]. It’s how you draw people when you’re younger – the shifted shoulder, this intentionally large silhouette.

Was the collection a long time coming or did the concept come later?

I guess it started more from the materiality than the concept. I started at Kiko Kostadinov doing womenswear and then went to [Maison] Margiela – John Galliano was still there. We were on the artisanal team and doing a lot of crafty projects. I think that’s where I started to get the idea for the weaving elements and the trompe-l’oeil knitwear.

What was your collection all about?

It’s supposed to be a parade of contrasting themes – very playful but also a bit disturbed and sexual. It’s a big amalgamation of things I’ve collected from dumpsters, garbage, charity shops and flea markets: secondhand things and stuff I’ve made.

Where in the world was most of this stuff collected?

The UK. For a few years now I’ve been building up the collection.

What is next for you?

Set design. Theatre!

Want more? Keep up with fashion’s brightest minds here: Myah Hasbany, Matthew David Andrews, Timisola Shasanya, Izzy Dickens and Andy Pomarico.