Go backstage at any fashion show, and you’ll discover the true meaning of chaos. It’s bedlam enough with just one designer, so when you’ve got 40 of them, you enter into the realm of a fever dream. This was the scene backstage at the Central Saint Martins BA Fashion show 2026, where the graduating class showed a collection of six looks each, for a total of around 240 looks. 

This year, the fashion school moved, swapping the usual Granary Square campus for Peckham Levels. This meant that the show could host a bigger audience than usual, but created new challenges for the students. Firstly, they had to somehow transport their collections from north to south London, and then they had to consider ceiling height. CSM has a reputation for theatrics, but particularly with its annual BA offering (remember last year’s flying witches?). With this year’s show hosted at Peckham Levels, the former 1980s multi-storey car park, students only had so much headroom. 

The new restrictions led to a tighter focus on design and construction, but of course, it wouldn’t be a CSM show without some absurdity. Take Yuki Naka, for example, who was mixing Fairy Liquid with water backstage, coating a jacket with thick layers of bubbles. Giacomo Goattin had one model hoist another model across the runway, carried inside what looked like a giant snail shell. Or the unmissable work of Buzz Shatford, whose highlighter-bright teletubby figures tricked us all into thinking we’d inhaled too much hairspray. 

It was a year to remember, and below, we meet the designers whose work is lodged in our memories. 

CASSIE AMBROZ, 29

”I’m from Ljubljana, Slovenia, and I study BA Fashion Knit. My graduate collection tells a story of trans failure and provides a safe space for exploration. I wanted the main focus to be fragility, awkwardness and sometimes discomfort of my own trans feminine identity, as it exists in today’s social climate. I would describe my collection and current practice as: tapping into the trans feminine power that mainstream society is too afraid of right now. 

“If I could have dinner with any three fashion designers, it would be Miuccia Prada and Mary-Kate and Ashley (as a singular entity) – they would be such a ki. And I’d add an anonymous woman to the list, someone who’s been grinding and hasn’t been credited yet.

“The big dream is to try and make it. As a trans woman, I am made to believe I mustn’t dream big, but I refuse to listen.”

ALVIS CHONG, 25

“I’m from Hong Kong, and I studied Menswear. My collection, Due North, is about growing up queer in Hong Kong, where there was always a version of myself I had to keep contained – from my family and from the society around me. I slowly blended in and then disappeared. Coming to London was the first time I felt like I could actually try being myself, and dressing became the way I tested that. It is me figuring that out. The tension between my two selves: the one that learned to compress, and the one that’s slowly unfolding. 

“My big dream is to time-travel! I’d walk into Balenciaga’s atelier during the 1950s and study how he constructed a garment. I’d sit in on a Madame Grès draping session and watch her sculpt. I’d watch Alaïa cut and pin.”

POLINA KADILNIKOVA, 21

“I studied Womenswear and I was born in Kharkiv and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. My collection, Casualties, is about the question of what happens to identity if your home disappears. What happens when places that shaped you no longer exist? This year is the fourth year of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, with millions of people losing their homes and hope to ever return. My collection uses a lot of imagery from occupied territories to represent the nostalgia of times of peace. It speaks about those who were forced to flee and leave everything behind. 

“All of the imagery and research is either created in Ukraine or done by Ukrainians. My main goal was to remind people that the war is still happening. The sole reason my work can exist is due to the sacrifice of thousands of people who protect my country daily and make it possible for me to return home to visit my family.

“I want to use the privilege of being at CSM to continue highlighting that the war is still ongoing. The fashion and art media need to stop being politically neutral: conversations create an awareness of the ongoing oppression and can change the trajectories of people’s lives. My big dream would be establishing a cooperative of people who talk about war through their work, collaborating with relocated Ukrainian artisans to support endangered crafts of occupied regions.”

ARORA NIELSON, 24

“I’m from Enfield, north London, and I studied BA Fashion Knit. This collection reflects my personal perspective of growing up in North London. It is an homage to the people I surround myself with and the spiritual outlook we share: how lucky I am to be from London and how we must protect this melting pot. 

“If I could have dinner with three fashion designers, it would be Vivienne Westwood because she always spoke up for what she believed in. Rei Kawakubo and Marc Jacobs.

“The big dream is to be able to work in a team with my friends, exercising our creative desires. It all boils down to making things that connect people.”

ELEONORE FOSKETT, 23

“I’m from London and Paris and I studied BA Fashion Knit. I was five when I first stepped into the world of rhythmic gymnastics. I ended up quitting because I didn’t like the training methods, but the memory never left me. I vividly remember my mum making me a rhythmic gymnastics leotard and I would run around my house in it. This collection is a return to rhythmic gymnastics on my own terms. My big dream would be to have a figure skating athleisure brand. I’ve always followed figure skating and think it’s a beautiful sport.”

ESME CHANCELLOR, 23

“I’m from the Suffolk countryside and I studied Womenswear at CSM. For this collection, I bought a Victorian day outfit from Portobello. It was made of four garments that fit together perfectly like a jigsaw. I thought about how everyone used to buy clothes as outfits, whereas now we collect clothes from everywhere: Vinted, a carboot, friends, and make them connect. I started very literally, and when I came back to uni, the shapes got weirder and more abstract. Colour is a big part of the collection – they all come from one 19th-century ribbon sample and the print is an 1840s floral pattern. I wanted to make things that felt new, but were actually old. Things that felt big but were light. I suppose the whole collection is about tension and contrasts, conceptually and literally. If I could describe my brand in three words, it would be tense, loose, and frankenwardrobe.

“I want to work in Paris, get a job in a couture house, and learn more about what I love.”

HARVEY BIGG, 23 

“I’m from Buckinghamshire and I studied Fashion Design: Communication (FDC, formerly FDM). Growing up in a family that has always worked in film props, I have been surrounded by science fiction and fantasy for as long as I can remember. This influenced me to recontextualise mundane events from the small village I live in, building them into a sci-fi narrative. 

“The big dream is to be the creative director of Burberry. But the real dream is beyond a job, and beyond the restraints of the industry and its calendar. People like Helmut Lang and Samuel Ross are the blueprint for me because they seem to be able to do whatever they want now. They have the freedom to move between projects and disciplines, almost like full-time hobbyists.”