SPOTLIGHT ON: THE FASHION GRADS

CELEBRATE THE TAILORING TALENT OF CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS' NEXT GENERATION OF FASHION DESIGNERS

The BA Fashion course at Central Saint Martins has launched the careers of many young designers, from Phoebe Philo to John Galliano. Here’s the cream of the crop of this year’s graduates.

AYHAM HASSAN​

Working between London and Ramallah, Ayham Hassan’s collection looks to the rich history of Palestine while grappling with the profound disjunctions of life under occupation. “[It] compels one to confront harsh contradictions, questions of worthiness and despair, and the unhinged cruelty of the other,” says Hassan, whose collection envisions models as regal warriors, dressed in vivid reimaginings of traditional costume. For his future-shocked vision, Hassan collaborated with nine Palestinian artisans including his mother, to contribute embroidery and knitwear. Using deadstock materials like leather, silk organza and rubber bands, he threads together an impressive visual narrative, with the collection’s blazing fuschia serving as a symbol of his nation’s resilience.

JADA TUDOR​

Sculptural skirts layered with leather and steel; futuristic facial pieces; crinoline cages made from latticed strips of metal: Jada Tudor’s collection considers metal as both material and metaphor. Taking inspiration from the engineering of the London Underground and Tudor’s half-Welsh, half-South Asian heritage, the collection’s standout piece, a skirt on wheels panelled with sheets of perforated steel, references “the ways in which women – including my own family – have been constrained”. Through their canny understanding of proportion and structure, Tudor transforms these notions of rigidity into wearable structures that stand with elegance. It’s no wonder they have been tipped by figures like Arca, who sported a dramatic red skirt from Tudor’s collection at a recent performance.

SHE CARMONA​

When She Carmona visited their hometown in the Philippines aged nine, they saw the country mostly from the blue-tinted windows of a car. Over a decade later, both the memory of the Philippines and that particular hue – “medical blue” as they call it – figure heavily in their graduate collection. “Are you truly in your hometown, and are you with the people?” they ask: “The blue questions the struggles of belonging, of going back to relive your past identities.” With garments that resemble oversized hospital scrubs and cable knit jumpers crafted with rice sacks taken from their hometown, their collection is an ode to the country’s proud material culture. Eschewing complex machinery, Carmona stuck to traditional handcraft methods of textile cutting, embracing the element of human error involved in the process. Juxtaposing distressed bodice pieces with pleated, pristinely crafted bottoms, the collection echoes the feeling of dislocation and flux that Carmona experiences as a member of a diaspora.

TIMISOLA SHASANYA​

For Sarabande scholar Timisola Shasanya, craftsmanship is more than just a technique. “It’s the soul of what I do. I draw heavily from my heritage, embedding echoes of memory, spirituality, and craft into every stitch.” Her collection “Runners”, inspired by her upbringing spent between London and Lagos, explores the tensions inherent to the unconventional materials she uses, from a tarpaulin bag from her father’s farm manipulated to resemble leather, to an abada made from wax cotton – a reference to his love of Barbour jackets. The titular “runners” refers to a pintuck stitching technique Shasanya has developed, after which the fabric is sturdy enough to hold metal rods and broomsticks, which towered over six feet above the models during the runway show. Designing specifically for dark skin, Shasanya’s elegant collection conveys the emotional texture of migration with garments that, in her own words, “stand on their own, yet vibrate even more fiercely when worn”.