A DIVE INTO THE MA FASHION GRADUATE SHOW OF CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS 2025
Under the rare sunlight of a bright morning in London, I made my way into the legendary school Central Saint Martins (CSM) a day before his annual MA Fashion show, where the best students in the course present their collections in front of a room full of insiders of the industry, press and buyers that might want to invest into some personal projects. It was a major opportunity for me to experience the rush in which students and staff of the course are immersed on the last day in which fittings can be hard to get through and problems rise from every single corner.
In case you live under a rock, CSM is part of the University of the Arts in London (UAL) and it focuses on pushing creative boundaries across disciplines like fashion, art or architecture. Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Phoebe Philo or Stella McCartney are some of the most recognizable names that have graduated from this campus and that had put this school as one of the best in the world (if not the best one) to study in by press and industry workers. Every year there are some names that stood out in the industry and for us, a Spanish publication, we would like to acknowledge the work of Ernesto Naranjo, Arturo Obegero, Paula Canovas del Vas and Archie Alled-Martinez that had reshape the understanding of fashion in our country.
In the time I spent in the studio that morning, I was able to get to know the collections that were selected for the runway next day in the London Fashion Week show space, where British Fashion Council NEWGEN designers would be presenting their collections in the days after. The CSM MA Fashion Show always ends on the first night of London Fashion Week, fall-winter edition and it was my first time experiencing it so I was so honored to be there.
We could talk hours about the excellent work that Petra Fagerstrom and William Palmer put out that night. She reframed the meaning of memories and how with the help of AI and digital programs was able to create an array of clothing that responded to the current rise of conservatism. While he playfully explored British masculinity using humour and satire to challenge its traditional, hyper-masculine stereotypes. And how understandable was their recognition by L’Oréal Professionnel, both recipients of the Creative Award 2025 with Yu Masui as the judge of the edition. But I would like to share some lights to my favorite graduates of 2025:
Trying to find joy in an uncertain future, that is the message that this graduate wants to put into the fashion industry and the world with his collection. BRIGHTLY is an array of garments that presents a new everyday wardrobe for a digital-physical reality, focusing on making subversive pieces that align with sportswear codes and the masculinity that comes with it. An act of showing how to create through digital design processes and physical play with upcycled garments, sports fabrics and foam scraps. He brought to reality his own digital scape and played with deconstruction to create perfectly finished garments.
NIGHTWALK is a conversation between luxury and rags. The moment between seeing and imagining, clothes that feel a bit off as if they have been someone’s before. A dark night fantasy tale where an alternative femme fatale does not have any necessity of being loud to have a presence. Multitude of details that let us know the involvement of the graduate like her own dyeing system to make blacks not match or manipulations to pursue a forever wrinkle effect. Silhouettes are simulating shifting distortion where some pieces are made to look small on the body of the wearer. She is trying to redefine what is romantic and boujee, making it gross.
“A bit horny but very pure like an angel…” is a sentence that we can read in the show notes and that perfectly describes the world in which the designer wants us to immerse in. RUDE ETIQUETTE is a collection that explores the idea of an imperfect garment through the use of second hand or donated clothing. It questions what being a clown is like in today’s world, what it’s like to make people uncomfortable just because of your looks and how can your appearance be related to your attitude to be relevant in space. The act of making an “imperfection copy of an unreachable dream” via the art of clothing.
Effortless, timeless and essential are concepts that can be seen explored in this collection, she created during her research some questions that are trying to answer with the final output. Everyday wardrobes of women artists were the main interest for the designer to elaborate an array of clothing that define women who are not weighed down by their appearance. Supported by the LVMH MA Fashion Scholarship and by Manteco, she created garments made entirely from natural fibre keeping in mind the idea of uniformity in our day-to-day lives. Her motto since the beginning was to deal with the frustration she feels with certain garments, like the impossibility to put a tailored jacket into a washing machine or the weird feeling of wearing some garments in bare skin. Details of staples are repositioned to find comfortability and practicality, highlighting the fact that some everyday garments can be extraordinary by simply adjusting the original design to fit the modern woman’s lifestyle.
HOME AND WORLD reflects the duality of black identity, a reality that in the case of the designer is rooted in understanding the relationship between Nigeria and the Black community in the US. A seamless fusion of Nigerian ceremonial dress, Regal Agbada-inspired silhouettes, with black American streetwear and the concept of urban style as the representation of the structure and edge seen on the streets of NYC. Highly desirable pieces, full of details, that serve as an example to understand that contemporary traditional wear can be sold in a western context without doubts. She is trying to have dialogue between cultures making an effort to keep it grounded and authentic, while rooted and free, where we can see the way culture moves with us even when we leave home.
Travelling is a necessity for youth nowadays, and discovering Europe is a way of searching for meaning and freedom for people that do not live in our welfare state. SO MUCH LONGING IN SUCH A LITTLE SPACE was created as a form to capture the self-discovery that the designer lived through his trip last summer. During his time visiting our continent, he wore a vintage shirt that became the symbol of the collection, an item that could be paired with every single item. It is a collection that works with ideas of versatile outfits, explosion of the self and taking confidence in what you just learned. Like his bamboo weaving technique that was acquired when he went back to China, after his bus ride experience. Leftover fabrics were used for the construction of every garment seeking immediacy and freedom. As a compilation of his trip, he has made two photobooks in which we can see portraits of himself with various scenery that gave birth to a collection where destruction and order meet.
An ode to escapism, a collection that focuses on presenting new ideas out of known pieces of clothing, a queer reinterpretation of historical codes by a Spanish designer. A reinterpretation game where, thanks to the support of Humana, we can see hats acting like garments, belts as more than an accessory and drapes as a way of perceiving staples. It juxtaposes utilitarian and military silhouettes in an oriolesque vibe that can be felt through images and in person. Deconstruction, darkness and androgyny are a big part of what OBLIT is, an array of clothing where glamour can be found alongside technicality and functionality. It generates a sense of tension, as if the garments themselves are attempting to break free. You could not get more dramatic in a demure way for a menswear attempt on reformulating what is current.
Development of emotions seen on a runway format. A collection that collects all the culture and social code of his roots. We are talking of an Indian designer appreciative of Western dress, classic music and a catholic imagination. Thanks to the LVMH MA Fashion Scholarship, he developed six characters as an ode to humanity, past and present. His central approach is circularity and how with upcycled textiles, end-of-mill and completely organic and sustainable fabric you can create a powerful collection with a strong message behind it. Putting in the front the beauty that exists in craft and that we can connect gender binary to heritage and folk, making a statement of the importance of representation and repression.
The storytelling behind the collection starts at his view from the basement flat that he has been living in for a couple of years now. At night he would be assaulted visually by bestial bodies and feral walks. It started with the fixation over a painting by Marlene Dumas, called “Teeth”, in which we can see the face of a woman grinding her teeth in vivid colors. DAMP WALLS BLISTER, on the contrary, is a selection of pieces in which black is the color par excellence, but the rawness of the image is still present through time consuming techniques. To focus on the idea of the type of woman he wanted to represent, he read different books over the summer that elaborate on a woman that is guided by her attitude and a certain walk. It is a night kind of woman, one that comes back from the club with ripped clothes. Silhouette, sculpture and proportion are concepts worked in a personal way: to shapeshift the aspect of the wearer, to reference the motherly figures he encountered in London with their decaying clothes and reckless stomps.
PERSONALITY HIRE is a collection where we can see a knitwear fanatic doing the most out of it. She explored the surrealism of office staples through the use of objects in said work environment in the making of the pieces like telephone cords. Distortion and movement are spread across a selection of uncanny garments that shine because of its absurdity factor. It is surprising to see a collection that captures the attention of the consumer in a way where there is a tightrope walk between good and bad taste. A ride in which clashing colors and fun shapes meet creating a monster of joy and confusion, a new proposition on office wear.
Understanding dance as a gateway to intimacy, we can admire how the beautifully crafted garments of the Spanish designer are seeking to show us the contrast between tension and release. Also, an idea of openness can be found through a collection that captures queerness as a lived and expressive experience. DIARY is relating the life of the designer with the diary of Vaslav Nijinsky, a choreographer in the 1910s, putting a bit of himself in every piece by sharing some of his personal pages over the last academic year. A sportswear celebration that questions how we find intimacy in the everyday and how we look queer in the ordinary. Lucifer Rising by Kenneth Anger came to be the inspiration of the color scheme, which can be seen all over the collection manifesting soft color blocking into the wardrobes of the male community, alongside some fluidity in the textiles department. His understanding of fashion can be seen as a physical manifestation of affectation and effeminacy in gesture.
Words: @alraco43