Fashion Crossover London Celebrates 15 Brightest Future Talents From Central Saint Martins Graduating Class of 2021
Despite an unprecedented year, Central Saint Martins’ Class of 2021 turned hardships into fuel to debut their graduate collection filled with resilience, hope and new beginnings. This year’s ELLE UK Advertorial Sponsorship opportunity, Fashion Crossover London honoured 15 of these brightest future talents across BA Jewellery, BA Textile Design, MA Material Futures and MA Bio Design with judges from Since Wang, Founder of Fashion Crossover London, and two Barclays Rising Star, Fashion Crossover London Designers Angela Thouless and Claire Tiplady.
“As a CSM alumna myself, I always feel obligated to support my fellow CSM graduates,” said Since Wang, Founder of Fashion Crossover London and Winner of Barclays Entrepreneur Award in 2020. “It is my mission to discover, promote and provide more opportunities to the next generation of future talents.”
Cultural exploration, sustainability and innovative technology were core themes among the winning collections. The 15 sponsorship recipients are designers Marta Torrent Boix, Ka Man Janet Choi, Valentine Dardel, Christoph Dichmann, Freyja Dorren, Paula Isabel Martin, Ruby Mellish, Chloe Renshaw-Smith, Alisa Ruzavina, Emma Shortland, Khristina Stolyarova, Khai Teoh, Elin Thirsk, Luis Undritz and Ferenc Zepko.
“Many congratulations to our 2021 graduates who have shown incredible resilience and produced remarkable projects throughout their final year of studies. These bright young designers shape a creative future with sustainable design proposals ranging from bio-couture to digital fashion print,” said Anne Marr, Central Saint Martins Programme Director, Jewellery, Textile and Materials.
For their graduate collections, Martin, Teoh, Torrent Boix and Renshaw-Smith sourced waste and off-cut materials to highlight different implications of overproduction in the industry. Martin created a set of tools to treat fish skin to form into leather, while Teoh reworked leather remnants to create textured handbags.
Elsewhere, Torrent Boix explored the potential of e-waste and created a pottery wheel and clay extruder using discarded electronics and Renshaw-Smith transformed recycled packaging into modular textiles to create soft, colourful and multi-functional garments.
Ruzavina and Dichmann used their collections as tools for activism. Ruzavina worked with sustainable brand Oshadi in India and indigenous artisans in Panama to revive traditional weaving and dyeing techniques while Dichmann focused on the phygital realm, building a game inspired by butterflies to highlight our fragile ecosystem.
Others created new techniques to help create a positive environmental impact. Undritz built a phytoprinter as an eco-friendly printing substitute on textile which also helps to bio-remediate the air and produce oxygen. Dorren’s abstract tiled pieces makes use of natural dye from food waste alongside Co2 absorbing paint and Dardel introduced a sustainable pleating technique void of chemical additives while Shortland developed her own low-impact leather embossing technique.
“Given the challenging times the class of 2021 have been working in, I was extremely impressed with the standard, quality and breadth of creative ideas they all presented.
It was very hard to select the winners. I wish them all well on their creative journey’s and I am sure we shall be seeing lots more of them in the future,” added Angela Thouless, Founder and Designer of Tirbe All and lecturer at Aberdeen College.
For Choi, Mellish, Stolyarova, Thirsk and Zepko, their collections centered around self and cultural exploration. Choi and Mellish used digital manipulation to highlight their message - Choi used digital twin techniques to create an interactive installation to highlight the relationship around nature, technology and humans while Mellish printed virtual abstract designs onto acetate to show the layers of self perception through her jewellery designs.
Stolyarova’s jewellery also references her sense of self, and reflects the melting pot of cultures and ideas she grew up with in post-Soviet Moscow. In a similar vein, Zepko pays homage to his Hungarian roots, creating a medley of knit and embroidered outfits to represent each Hungarian archetype.
Elsewhere, Thirsk uses her collection to help her and others fell comfortable with the grieving process after the death of her father, presenting soft yet intricately woven knits to express her emotions.
These 15 designers displayed exemplary collections that showcased their mastery of textile and material manipulation, in addition to experimental with multiple techniques.
“It has been a pleasure judging for this opportunity, the calibre of artistic talent this year by the CSM graduates by far exceeded my expectations. It was great to see how passionate and adaptive each finalist was considering the difficulties of the past year, these fifteen recipients are definitely the ‘ones to watch’ and I can’t wait to see where they go in the future,” said Claire Tiplady, Founder and Designer of her eponymous brand Claire Tiplady.