Hasta La Ideas

With London Fashion Week well under way, Dezeen’s design reporter Alice Morby reflects on some of the best talents at last week’s Central Saint Martins MA Fashion show.

This year, 16 students were chosen by course leader Fabio Piras – Louise Wilson’s successor – to present their collections to an audience at the British Fashion Council show space.

Before the show, a minute’s silence was held for fashion designer – and Central Saint Martins alumni – Richard Nicoll, who died suddenly last year aged 39.

The prestigious Professionnel Creative Award, awarded each year by show sponsor L’Oréal, was shared between two students, Gabriele Skucas and Stefan Cooke.

Read on for our picks of the best collections from the show.

Stefan Cooke

Print student Stefan Cooke stole the show with his striking menswear collection, which was made up of woven pieces of digitally printed elastic.

“Whilst making this collection my focus was to find something contemporary in the almost monotonous pieces of the wardrobe,” he told Dezeen. “I wanted to focus on technique, material and application by taking each piece out of its context. I wanted the collection to be new but very familiar.”

Gabriele Skulka

Skulka, a knitwear student, presented the most pared-back collection at the show.

Models wore demure ensembles made up of pleated mid-length skirts, cream blouses and black cardigans.

Joshua Walters

Leicester-born menswear designer Joshua Walters, whose label 3Mån is already stocked at London’s Dover Street Market, presented a collection of genderless garments. Each look was composed of a single colour or fabric, with detailing including enlarged zips, buttons and pockets.

“The collection seeks to subvert modern ideals of beauty by proposing a new relaxed, purposeful and gender-neutral silhouette,” Walters told Dezeen. “The collection attempts to become a new clothing archetype.”

Robert Sanders

Sanders also questioned ideas surrounding gender for his menswear collection, which he made from recycled fabric layered up to create tunics, shorts and skirts.

Bleached-out denim was paired with heavy canvases, beige-coloured cotton and string vests. Models wore simple brown Chelsea boots and baseball caps with ruffled peaks.

Markus Wernitznig

Austria-born Wernitznig designed one of the show’s most colourful collections, basing his womenswear garments on the 1964 film L’Enfer by Henri-Georges Clouzot – which was never completed.

He mused on Clouzot’s experimental filmmaking methods throughout the collection, combining colourful plastic garments with chiffon and shearling showpieces.

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