Meet the next generation of Central Saint Martins graduates

This year's MA cohort have proven that creativity will prosper even in the most difficult of times

26March 2021

Debuting in the midst of a pandemic was certainly not what this year’s graduating cohort of Central Saint Martins students had envisioned when they enrolled onto their respective MA courses two years ago, but here we are. Suffice to say, a year of limited contact, Zoom classes, and Brexit delays could not dampen the creativity of the programme’s 33-strong-battalion.

“Working through lockdowns and life behind screens may have limited our ways” says Fabio Piras, MA course director at CSM, “but it certainly didn’t affect the attitude and the belief that we can only embrace the moment and make it greater. That is what the Class of 2021 just did – uncompromisingly within the compromise – enabling us all to move forward together fearlessly.”

This year’s MA presentations came not by film, as we have become accustomed to over the course of the past two fashion seasons, but an immersive, scroll-through space which sought to render the hallowed setting of Granary Square, home to CSM, in digital format. Upon clicking the show link, guests are greeted by none other than cult fashion enigma, Michèle Lamy, who voices a message inspired by the students’ collections. “The future is now” she rasps as the screen zooms into a final chamber made up of individual roomscapes, unveiling each of the designer’s brave new collections.

Joining the ranks of Phoebe Philo, Alexander McQueen, and John Galliano, this year’s alumni are testament to the pioneering nature of London’s fashion talent – from David Weksler, who crafted a post-apocalyptic collection from the wardrobe of his late uncle, to Viven Canadas’ playful ode to the countryside and Uliana Nekrasova’s burlesque-cum-brain scan-inspired offering.

Across knitwear, textiles, menswear, and womenswear, we take a look at just a few of the ones to watch from the Class of 2021.

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Courtesy of CSM

SÓL HANSDÓTTIR

Joint recipient of the L’Oreal Professionnel Scholarship this year is the Icelandic Sól Hansdóttir, who’s graduating from CSM’s MA Womenswear course. Hansdóttir’s collection is rooted in a fear of the unknown and her ten piece collection excavates the gamut of anxieties that often burrow into our subconscious. Repetitive pleats, asymmetrical structures, and handcrafted copper rings spiral around the body in Hansdóttir’s attempts to excavate irrationality.

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Courtesy of CSM

ADAM ELYASSÉ

A hard and fast menswear designer, Adam Elyassé was born in East London but his nine-piece outerwear collection is a dialogue between his Morrocan heritage and British upbringing. For Elyassé, colour was really the driving force behind any messaging, with red and blue representing not only the geographical divide within his life, but opposing political agendas. Meanwhile, the wind that swirls around his presentation room is said to represent the African diaspora. Uniting Elyassé’s inner dichotomy is his standout finale piece, an all black structural, cape-like robe that offers a shelter for both his communities to nestle beneath.

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Courtesy of CSM

CHLOE NARDIN

Chloe Nardin, who is leaving CSM with an MA in womenswear and menswear, seeks to reflect the Parisian values of today in her collection. This is no Emily in Paris fantasy, but a realistic portrayal of the contemporary, urban lives of Parisians. Having grown up in the city’s outskirts, Nardin hopes to bring a whiff of romanticism to sportswear, softening athletic silhouettes with embroidery and provençal fabrics. Smocked cotton, delicate prints, and viscose yarns replace the synthetic polyesters of the sports world, imbuing the quotidian with a sense of history.

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Courtesy of CSM

HORACE PAGE

Specialising in both womenswear and menswear, Horace Page’s graduate collection attempts to interrogate the classist structures of British society. For Page, this is articulated in a tension between the aesthetic tropes of the landed gentry and the metropolitan finesse of city dwellers. Donegal tweeds are hacked open and stuffed with nylon inserts, cashmere is subverted as an inner lining stitched into trench coats, and military trousers are twisted with elasticated interiors, forcing them to warp ceremoniously in a complete lampooning of dress code and uniform.

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Courtesy of CSM

ANTÓNIO CASTRO

The other half of the L’Oreal Professionnel Scholarship is António Castro, MA Textiles, whose decadent collection is inspired by Portugeuse rituals surrounding the winter solstice. In smushing the artisanal with techniques widely associated with Haute Couture, Castro develops a unique handwriting which is at once regal and homespun. As he combines Marie Antoinette-inspired silhouettes with traditional Portuguese weaving, Castro is able to construct his collection through the act of deconstruction. Think shirt cuffs pleated into bodices with cut-and-paste trousers, shaped into Renaissance-style breeches.

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Central Saint Martins has produced a photobook by the documentary photographer Anna Fox to commemorate the building of these final collections. The book is being sold exclusively on the website of fashion incubator, Machine-A, with all proceeds going to CSM.