Central Saint Martins is London’s fashion star factory. Each February fashion week, its annual MA show draws big crowds keen to catch a glimpse of the industry’s future leaders.
Legends including Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Stella McCartney have all led their debut collections down its esteemed runways. This year’s show ran directly before Burberry, where 2011 CSM graduate Daniel Lee presented his first collection as Creative Director.
The Class of ‘23 swapped showing at the college’s Kings Cross building for the Old Selfridges Hotel, which has been the central hub of this season’s London Fashion Week.
Monday night’s show saw Princess Julia, Daniel Lismore and Olympian Imani-Lara Lansiquot show up to support CSM’s new creations. Here are eight names you don’t want to miss...
Yaku Stapleton
Yaku Stapleton’s exuberant, puffy graduate collection was born a fantasy of role-playing online game characters, and went down a storm - he was crowned winner of the L’Oreal Creative Award 2023 by Dazed’s Editor-In-Chief Ib Kamera post-show. A quote by Ytasha Womack served as a founding principle for his collection: “Afro Futurism is a way of looking into the future and alternate realities through a black cultural lens.”
Somewhere between high fashion and costume design, the designer sent out a huge bubblegum-pink puffer jacket with an arm clawing at the chest, and fabric bursting from the sides. It was Stapleton’s favourite piece, and emblematic of his designs which focussed on experimenting with scale and sensory elements. His award winning line-up saw synthetic fabrics morphed through stretching and shrinking, and natural ones to “convey a sense of honesty in a character,” he says.
Nomvelo Dlamini
Nomvelo Dlamini’s sharply tailored collection speaks against the stigma forcing androgynous-looking Black women to feel they must prove their femininity. By studying South African photographer Nontsikelelo Veleko’s work, Dlamini considered Black androgynous music artists in the 1990s-2000s, whose genders were hotly debated, in her development process.
One black tailored utility jacket had an exaggerated, puffed-out silhouette and was adorned with vibrant painted flowers. Each look was modelled by a Black woman, their hair worn naturally. “Christian colonialism drew scriptures to deceive Black women into head shaving, as their hair was seen as ungodly, unsightly and untameable,” says the designer.
Chie Kaya
At first glance Chie Kaya’s collection looks like something you might already have in your wardrobe. But look closer, and garments are scrunched and twisted strangely, with panels hanging off or oddly folded. Her tailored black suit has a red Sharpie stuck to the breast pocket. “It looks awkwardly right,” she says.
Kaya is interested in how working women are resourceful with their wardrobes, and alter and deconstruct bought garments to accommodate for wear over time. “It’s about finding the possibilities within a restricted amount of clothes we have access to,” she says. Kaya’s collection won her the Canada Goose Award for Responsible Design 2023 at this week’s show.
Maxime Black
Maxime Black skipped studying Fashion BA and fast-tracked to CSM’s MA course. “YouTube is my university,” he says. Black used artificial intelligence to design his first collection by feeding his ideas to a self-made AI entity, which offered interpretations of the designs back to him. “The result is a piece that has been conceptualised by not one but two designers,” says Black. His bomber jackets and cargo pants are deceptively uncomplicated. “The fashion I intend to build may be one of complex processes, but will only thrive if the outcome is very simple,” he says.
His opening look featured a quilted bomber jacket fashioned from moulded recycled foam and coated with fake snow. “The combination of artisanal work and computer generated design creates something that has never been seen in fashion,” the designer says.
Francesca Lake
Francesca Lake designs clothes that take up as much space as possible. “The collection is a space where regality and vulgarity coincide,” she says. Her hats flare out past the shoulders, with enough space for three heads each, and shoulders jut out joyfully. According to Lake, “they act as an external representation of the loud, bold and braggadocious personality of the Jamaican character.”
The chosen fabrics vary from regenerated leather to pleated silk, and juicy red, lime green, and gold tones were chosen to “reflect the vibrance of the shop walls prevalent throughout the Jamaican diaspora,” she says. Her favourite piece? The ‘Big Batty Skirt’ fashioned from preloved jackets from Brick Lane, with a steel boning bustle understructure.
Ellen Poppy Hill
Ellen Poppy Hill’s collection is a “series of short loves and heartbreaks”, founded on the blood, sweat and tears of her DIY making process. Rejecting sleekness in favour of letting it all hang out, Hill chose to focus on “a celebration of mistakes and my love for clothing.”
The designer’s entire collection has been remade from existing pieces, through an arduous process of unpicking and re-stitching. It is a beloved jungle of pins, needles, buttons, bells, ropes and chains, hand sewn together from drawings. “Everything deserves a closer look,” she says. “It is as if I should give everyone a magnifying glass to watch it on the runway.” Hill was runner-up for the L’Oreal Pro Young Talent Award at her BA graduate show in 2021.
Giorgia Presti
Giorgia Presti’s graduate collection, Debris, taught her to trust in what is available. Finding the power in simplicity and limitation, her line-up saw torn apart, shrunken vintage sequins hand-stitched to foil-printed lycra and box nets clamped together with staples. “It is inspired by disposable objects and packaging we usually rip open, then throw to the curbside,” says the designer.
Her rubber-bonded ‘Frame Box’ trench coat was made in collaboration with Mackintosh, is crafted from a single piece of fabric and shaped with folds and tears. “‘Debris’ is the arrival of an effective, sustainable design language and process; yet remaining sophisticated and desirable.”
Oscar OÅ«yáng
Oscar OÅ«yáng’s earthy mohair creations look protective and combative, whilst being warm and fuzzy. “It’s a bit leafy, a bit military, a bit comfy. It’s an expression of my senses towards this chaotic world,” he says. He used deadstock yarns sourced from heritage Italian mills to knit patterns drawn from the southeast Asian Alocasia and Philodendron plants. “My favourite look would be the alocasia crochet leaf sleeves look with crochet fern embroidered. It’s such a delicate and hand labour intensive look it’s almost like demi-couture knitwear,” he says.
The colour palette ranges from sunset orange to mossy green, offset by antique lace that OÅ«yáng sourced in markets and draped intuitively.
