The Subtle Graduate

Style.com gave this year’s Central Saint Martins’ MA show a rather subdued verdict, that there were few standouts or immediate stars set for rapid catapulting into the sort of immediate fashion stardom that the likes of Christopher Kane and Marios Schwab have experienced.  However, I think ‘slow and steady wins the race’ is most applicable to this year’s crop of graduates, and at last week’s CSM public viewing, seeing all the pieces up close confirmed that there’s absolute strength in subtlety. 

Ok so there was a bit of beige but the colour was worked in different ways.  Machabeli did ruffled outerwear and trench incarnations whilst Gaston did a sort of pared down collection of sportswear infused separates. 

Simon Machabeli // Kirsty Gaston

Stark monochrome also dominated... but the shapes and incorporation of a twisted shirt detailing means you couldn’t really call any it minimalist or the like.

Masha Ma // Kirsty Ward

A lot of grads also seemed to work on one particular pattern or motif which kept things quite focused.  Swirly whirly and warped checks never looked so good... 

Sachio Kawasaki // Joanne Vanderpuije

The recognised ‘winners' of this year’s CSM MA grads seemed to have a few things in common, namely working on a particular craft/embellishment and keeping their collections streamlined to show off that specific ‘strength’.  So David Steinhorst’s collection had a lot of metal work and heavy zips running throughout all the pieces which bagged him the Harrods Design Award of £5,000.  The physical weight of the metal actually gives the pieces themselves fashion 'weight' strangely enough...

Simone Shailes won the L’Oreal Professionel Fashion Design Award, also of £5,000 with her very heavy knitwear that to me looked like woollen wings, made more beautiful with the addition of metal plates.  Shailes joins the growing legion of 'wicked' as opposed to 'traditional' knitwear designers in the UK.   

However my favourite collections used a more unusual sort of embellishment and decoration.  Natasha Stolle added enamel pebble effects in bright colours and also constructed a skirt entirely covered with those plastic googly eyes you get on cheap soft toys.  From far away, this really isn’t apparent until you get up close and shake it and see the black pupils jostling around!   

Hampus Bernhoff managed to use clear plastic sheeting, the type you get on drycleaning bags, to augment his pieces, which somehow worked in his collection. 

Despite my assertion that subtlety is no bad thing, it doesn’t surprise me that my top picks of the MA show are on the decorative side.  Still, neither collections are what one would call deliberately ostentatious... especially in comparison to the CSM MA collections that have gone before...

Mary Katrantzou used Russian Constructivism as an inspiration and created quite deliberately strong graphic trompe l’oeil effects of neck jewellery.  Real life jewellery also featured, replicating the prints.  Zips were used to panel together bonded jersey and wool which really made the colour blocking all the more apparent.   

Finally Louise Markey tickled my fancy with her use of colour that strongly reminded me of this Vogue Korea editorial.  There was a sort of oddity to the way she composed the colours in her silk dresses and also an awkwardness in the shapes, which both worked for me when combined together.  Her display at the exhibition was quite lovely to stand around in, as the dresses displayed were dazzling in their colour blocking simplicity.

Comments

[Laia]

Ah! Thanks so much for this. I saw the collection on Style.com but they blew it and didn't name the designer in the pictures so I was totally lost and confused. I tried doing google searches to find the names of the designers and also ended up empty handed, so man, thanks!
I loved Mary Katrantzou's collection SO MUCH!

[The Clothes Horse]

Great coverage. I think the poppy bright tromp l'oeil is my favorite. But I would love to see a googly-eye piece in person...
Oh, and my shoes fit better than they appear to in the picture, I was sort of balancing on one foot and shooting from an odd angle, not the cleverest of choices.

[coco]

I loved the structured knits
they were very very good!

[Renée Sturme / FashionFillers]

Mary Katrantzou has already been worn by Agyness Deyn. Personally I really like some collections, and hated other ones. Nothing in between really. Hampus Bernhoff looked really horrible to me. Who would ever wear that? Please, let me show the world I'm feminine!

[Secretista]

Mary Katrantzou's collection reminds me of the 60's. I love it!

[belle]

Louise Markley's collections reminded me of Queen Michelle's zip up skirt, the colors and the zipper in the middle. It's definitely not a bad thing though.

[Lady Coveted]

oh thank you so much for showing these! i really did like the CSM show, and i'm sad i couldn't make the degree show... it's always so cool to see the work up close and personal.

i thought Mary Katrantzou's work was really playful and fun...

[Dani]

Yeah I was going to say Louise Markey's collection reminded me of the traditional Korean hanboks, like the ones featured in that editorial. Actually Vogue Korea has had several hanbok editorials I believe.

[Natty]

Mary Katrantzou was by far my fave. Those dresses are so bright, fun and playful and also so easy to wear!

[ms. spinach]

Louis Markey = serious love. Those saturated-sorbet colors! Words cannot express. And Simone Shailes' knitwear! I'm kind of speechless. For once.

[Drusilla]

Move over eyelet skirts...now we can have actual EYE skirts! They'd be such fun to wear, too.
I like the look of Louise Markey's collection too, as well as the editorial it reminded you of. Fantastic stuff, this, and I think this is stuff that's worth looking forward to :)

[mica]

The googly eye skirt sounds awesome! I would love to see it in real life. I think it would be such an interesting piece to wear, can you imagine all the conversations it would start? I wonder if I could maybe start sticking some eyes to one of my skirts....if only I had the talent or the patience to learn! lol

[Claire]

One CSM collection that stood out for me was Kari Landens. All pieces quite minimalistic, but with some sort of sculptured detail, usually in the form of squares or rectangles attached to the dresses, or strong squared shoulders. I borrowed some pieces recently for a shoot, they were quite amazing up close. The shoes she made to go with the show were quite neat too.

[enc]

Beautiful and brash.