06-06-2025
Central Saint Martins B.A. Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
Anyone with a passing interest in fashion knows that Central Saint Martins is the conduit through which generations of talent from around the world have passed on their way to becoming some of the most influential designers in the world. In particular, the head-spinning list of alumni from the M.A. course is a who's who of era-defining stars; but just as remarkable about this London institution are the hundreds of graduates each year from across every fashion-related pathway who go on to work behind the scenes in the industry, whether as senior talent in the ateliers of major Paris fashion houses, or across the numerous other, less-remarked-upon facets that make up the industry, from media to event production.
And many of those up-and-comers come from the B.A. course, which is better known as a forum where young designers are yet to worry about the pressures of commercial constraints, and can instead let their freak flags fly. The latest showcase of that spirit, held in the cavernous central hall of the former granary building in King's Cross that is now the university's hub, didn't disappoint on the wackiness front: Andy Pomarico's eye-popping carnival floats festooned with flotsam and jetsam found on dumpster dives, with a witchy model in green body paint swinging through a doorway in the center, certainly saw to that; as did Linus Stueben's Y2K-on-acid extravaganza that featured fabric patches resembling toilet rolls stuck to the heels of furry boots, track pants that were pulled down to the calves and then stitched to stay there, and a model walking a robot dog on a leash—complete with a kitschy pink collar, naturally. (A special mention, too, for Matthew David Andrews's kaleidoscopic, wind-blown ladies caught in inclement weather, whose hats turned out to be hiding mini water sprinklers; what could have felt gimmicky ended up having an eerily post-apocalyptic air.)
Yet many of the most interesting collections threaded the needle between high visual impact and more subtle messaging. Just take Timisola Shasanya's fascinating eye for proportion, warping scale and shape—shirts piled up around the neck like a kind of shrug, or a top that was artfully draped to rise up behind the model on a six-foot long rod like a kind of ship's sail—to create pieces that spoke to a childhood spent between Lagos and London, as well as to wider conversations around migration, all achieved in supremely elegant style. Or the refined playfulness of Marie Schulze's grown-up outerwear crafted from wide strips of raw silk, streams of fabric bursting from handbags or through the toes of shoes to the sound of a manic orchestral soundtrack.
