On an international level, of all the student shows to watch in London, the Central St. Martin’s BA show ranks pretty highly. I don’t necessarily believe it produces the most interesting work out of all the schools in the UK (RCA, Middlesex and Westminster are my preferred ones to watch…), however with the ‘name’ of the school, and the calibre of past students, these grads really can’t be ignored. If I’m honest, I personally wasn’t blown away by the bulk of the show but the ones that shone, REALLY shone. There had to be the one grad that went for dramatic shock factor and that was Maki Ichikawa who has couture aspirations and made a Hussein Chalayan (who incidentally teaches at CSM)-esque statement with her Metronome dress, inspired by the Industrial Revolution and the passing of time.
The L’Oreal Professionnel fund award went to Jack Isenberg for his intricate laser cut leather and tulle dresses. The standout piece of his collection (and probably the whole show) was the lace cut out bulbous-cage dress, worn by Olivia Inge but the abundance of rasberry chiffon in his other pieces looked too much on the heavy side.
The thing I found with most of the students’ work was the unnecessary excessiveness of it all which is something that I would usually applaud but somehow in the collections didn’t work for me. The standout for me was David Komakhidze whose work reminds me a little of Thierry Mugler but with less emphasis on the ‘power-bot femme’. He won the second prize in the funding award. The metalwork on the dresses are quite stunning when paired with the softly shaped dresses underneath. Without sounding trite, and in agreement with various papers, I do believe we have a ‘one to watch’ on our hands. Christopher Kane is only in his second season and already he has a successor hot on his heels.
Others which I personally found interesting but I’m probably in the minority were Elodie Giraud and her strangely evocative mix of textures and ‘funny’ shapes, Hyun A Lee’s trompe d’oeil layered pieces (the excessiveness worked here…) and the deceptively simple and white collection from Olga Kazakova.
I simply must start keeping a database of names on an Excel spreadsheet or something to keep track of their whereabouts and going-on’s.
i love the pieces you showed of Jack Isenberg & David Komakhidze…there are def. some names to watch here!
the trompe l’oeil outfit is sooooo lovely, but i wish she had found a way to treat the top half so that it didn’t look literally like a canvas, so stiff. i think the white dress is just amazing, living proof that doing simple IS more difficult.
where can i see images from this show? my friend was a designer and i want to see images of his stuff.
it all looks too clumsy and try-hard to me. No finesse I’m afraid!
nice collection
I really love the David Komakhidze collection. Yum Yum strong and different.
Jack Isenberg reminds me of Mcqueen…too much?
Where can i see the images from the show? Are they up yet?
I was at the show and i personally loved the knitwear students collections…Liria Pristine’s line particularly stood out to me. Her pieces were timeless and beautiful each piece was designed with fine detail and a great colour pallet. Her swanky collection showed like something coming from the 1940s era i was very impressed! However I found that some of the winners were not as deserving of there winnings such as the 3rd runner up, I thought it was dreadful anyone could have put that together but to actually call it good work blows my mind!
yeah… i haven’t found the images from this show either… tip anyone?
Was at the show as well. Agree that ninety percent of it was rubbish. HOWEVER, was absolutely blown away by Jack Isenberg. Apparently, others were too (ie Vogue…just saw his article on the website ‘jack the lad’ etc). Had the opportunity to chat with him afterwards. Nice guy. Down to earth. Next Tom Ford????? Couple other nice shows: Oden Wilson i really liked how he mixed japanese kimonos with sportswear.
forget csm
de monfort university is where its now at!
could you please help me find laser cut tulle or fabric. i need it for my wedding gown. thanks