The Class of 2020 had a rough ride when it came to their final days in education. With universities closing their doors as the coronavirus swept the world, fashion students particularly were faced with a whole new and unforeseen challenge – not only did they have to ride out the uncertainty and anxiety that came with navigating a pandemic (no big deal), they also had to come up with a way to put together the most important collection of their uni careers under lockdown conditions.
What came out of this was a flood of creativity that demonstrated the wild talent rising out of our fashion schools, and a beacon of hope for the future, as the graduating students examined the industry and their proposed place in it, explored new ways of creating, and reconfigured physical shows for the digital realm.
Now, as lockdown begins to lift in the UK and we approach something that at least resembles normality, a number of 2020 graduates from Central Saint Martins, the Royal College of Art, and London College of Fashion have been brought together to show their work IRL, as part of a collaborative end-of-year show taking place at the old CSM building in Central London.
Open now until August 9, the Class of 2020Vision takes the form of an interactive, immersive installation, with each graduate given five days to put their spin on the space.
Among them are Sandra Poulson, whose grad collection explores her Angolan heritage and decolonisation, Sarah Kauffman, who drew inspiration from her rural Arkansas home and Ursula K. Le Guin novel The Dispossessed for her offering of the same name, and Aaron Esh, who channelled the alienation that comes from existing within a capitalist system into his final project (and moved his entire bedroom into the CSM building as part of his presentation).
Find out more and book a viewing slot here.
