The CSM classmates dressing Lady Gaga: ‘I am honestly speechless’

Lady Gaga is no stranger to wearing graduate collections. In 2014, she purchased the entire final collection of Wilson PK, the Hong Kong designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins. She’s turned to Polimoda graduate Samuel Lewis multiple times this year for custom variations of his graduate collection. Back in 2011, Gaga wore Birmingham City graduate Rebecca Short’s rubber design, and for her Artpop album artwork, she wore a visor by LCF grad Isabell Yalda Hellysaz.

Yesterday evening (August 28), the singer made her first public appearance to promote Wednesday season two, wearing not one, but two Central Saint Martins classmates. She wore a gothic, witch-inspired one piece by Belgian designer Anton Femia, paired with a toppling umbrella hat designed by Essex-raised Matthew David Andrews, which was made by milliner Jenny Beattie. 

Both designers showed their collections earlier this summer during Central Saint Martin’s BA fashion show, but despite them being good friends and in the same womenswear class, neither one knew that their designs were due to be styled together, let alone worn by Lady Gaga. Though her stylist, Hunter Clem, had been in touch with them to request the looks, any young designer knows not to get their hopes up – you never know what will or won’t make it to the red carpet.

This morning, the young designers woke up to a social media influx. At Netflix’s Graveyard Gala in New York, Gaga wore the designs not only to promote Wednesday, but to announce her brand new single “The Dead Dance” too. Andrews cried for an hour. Femia didn’t even realise until his phone started blowing up. Below, we catch up with them both (though they’re still in disbelief).

What was it like waking up this morning to see Lady Gaga wearing your designs?

Matthew David Andrews: Absolutely incredible. I cried for an hour! Me and my team heard rumbles yesterday that she might be wearing the hat, so we were very excited about the possibility that it could happen. I can’t believe it, what a dream come true.

Anton Femia: This morning was a bit hectic! I only realised she’d worn the dress in the car when I noticed all the notifications from posts tagging me and all the lovely messages people had been leaving.

Have you always been little monsters?  

Matthew David Andrews: Lady Gaga really played a role in my journey growing up – who else wears a meat dress!? Seeing her wear the likes of McQueen introduced me to the world of high fashion. I still to this day will sit and go down a wormhole watching every music  video, analysing the artistic direction! To now be in the history books of her iconic archive of looks is such a blessing.

Anton Femia: I think deep down we all are little monsters. I started following Gaga's work when she collaborated with Alexander McQueen and released ‘Bad Romance’ during Plato’s Atlantis. I was 10, I think! I bought the album and have kept up with her ever since. This makes it even more touching that she announced the release of the next single, ‘The Dead Dance’, while wearing my dress.

What’s the story behind both your designs? 

Matthew David Andrews: My graduate collection was inspired by photographs of a real flood that occurred in my hometown, Wickford, in 1958. I wanted to use this devastating event as a metaphor for my struggles growing up as a queer child, drowning in the fear of revealing my true self. The looks in the collection had ‘windswept’ silhouettes, as if the models were battling a tremendous storm, hence the umbrella hat! Overall this hat took around four or five months to make. 

I worked closely with milliner Jenny Beattie on my AW24 collection as well as my BA graduate collection this year. She is such a talented lady! Millinery is really a dying craft. Jenny not only creates hats that feel modern and exciting, but hats that excellently subvert traditional methods.

Anton Femia: This is the final look from my graduate collection, which was titled A Walk In The Forest. You go deeper into the forest throughout the collection, in a literal sense and also in a metaphysical sense. The looks become distorted and imaginary. We get the secret garden, the corpse, and finally, ‘the fly witch’ – which is the one Lady Gaga wore.

Do you know each other well from your time at CSM? 

Matthew David Andrews: I couldn’t believe it when I saw Anton’s garment paired with my hat! We were in the same class studying womenswear and were always chatting in the studio. We are really good friends – we even stayed together on our trip to the Balenciaga museum in Spain, so to have our work crossover for this legendary moment is so lovely.

Anton Femia: I remember seeing Matthew’s first project of second year and thinking he was such a hard worker with an incredible imagination. I heavily encourage everybody reading this to take a look at his work as well. I'm so happy they chose to pair my dress with his hat.

I think [Lady Gaga] has always prioritised the look and the artistry before the label – this is one of the things that set her apart early on in her career – Anton Femia

Does it feel like a natural choice to style the two of your designs together?

Matthew David Andrews: Absolutely! I always admired his technical ability. He’s such a good craftsman. Making such gorgeous structures that reference historical garments. There are definitely similarities with our references, we both love something whimsical and fantastical.

Anton Femia: We both direct our work towards intricate shapes and texture. I’d say we are both attracted to theatrical universes and it’s fun to see similarities even though they’re completely different. I feel like you can truly see a Belgian point of view versus a British one.

What does it mean to you to see someone as famous as Lady Gaga turning to recent grads for her looks, rather than big luxury houses?

Matthew David Andrews: I think it’s fantastic. I owe (stylist) Hunter Clem and his team a massive thank you for making this happen. It goes without saying that I am beyond pleased that Gaga loved the piece enough to wear it for her first promo event for Wednesday season two, and to announce her new single! What an honour. I also hope she took some ibuprofen – I know that hat weighs a tonne and can be headache inducing.

Anton Femia: I am honestly speechless. I think she has always prioritised the look and the artistry before the label – this is one of the things that set her apart early on in her career. I hope other celebrities take inspiration and mix household fashion names with student work. Of course there is a time and a place for everything, but it says a lot that one of the biggest artists in the world supports student work.

You graduated this summer, what’s next for you?

Matthew David Andrews: I want to take every opportunity and enjoy myself whilst I have the freedom to do so. But ultimately the big dream would be to be creative director of Moschino. Maybe one day!

Anton Femia: ‘What's next?’ is a question I ask myself too. I think for now I must spend some time with the family that I neglected a little over the past three years while studying. Before starting my journey at CSM, I graduated with a fine arts degree from La Cambre. I would love to merge both backgrounds and work on commissions for clients, encompassing fashion, interior design, curation, even writing or scenography. There is so much more that I would love to do and study before working that I am tempted to apply to a masters if I can save enough.