For the first time in 15 years, Central Saint Martins relocated its BA fashion show from its hallowed halls to Peckham, South London. The shift in venue did little to dim the energy; alumni, students, and families gathered to champion a new generation of designers. This season, the runway was a riot of electric color, swirling patterns, and material invention - a defiant celebration of community amid global instability. Notably, the show dispensed with celebrity judges, instead inviting the audience to vote for their favorite collections - a democratic gesture that felt both radical and necessary.
Polina Kadilnikova, a Ukrainian womenswear designer, claimed the L'Oréal Young Talent Award with a collection that unpacked the Russo-Ukrainian war's cultural erasure. Her silhouettes, distorted from traditional garments now banned or lost, were printed with faded idyllic scenes. Steel anti-tank obstacles, shrunk into dress embellishments, served as a quiet but fierce protest. For those who trace lingerie's history of political symbolism - from corsets as tools of control to liberation - Kadilnikova's work echoes how undergarments have long carried weight beyond the body.
Matteo Dunkley, a knitwear graduate, turned a last-minute pivot into serendipity. By embedding wax into his knits, he created sculptable sweaters and trousers with a newfound sheen, tied with ribbons that framed models as the prize, not the clothing. This nod to the wearer's primacy recalls early 20th-century brassiere designers who prioritized comfort and silhouette over ornament.
Chi Wei's neon-beaded collection, inspired by her childhood jewelry box and the cartoon "Black Cat Detective," offered candy-coated yellows and blues. Mod A-line dresses in plasticky faux fur evoked a toy-like tactility, a playful echo of the 1960s when lingerie embraced synthetic fabrics for their whimsy and practicality.
Joseph Richman explored the awkward yearning of suburban taste, translating secret snapshots of his London neighbors into wonky garments - a French boiler suit in stiffened British wool, thrifted scarves recut into pleated dresses. His critique of class performance resonates with lingerie's own history of aspirational dressing, from the 1920s rayon slips that democratized luxury to today's shapewear as status signal.
Jonah Davies, a Daphne Guinness Scholarship holder, delivered a fantastical costume chest, complete with kebab-wrapper trousers in silver foil and a peacoat studded with attachable limes. His ill-fitting silhouettes, cheeky bumster cuts, and Velcro-reactive fabrics channeled the playful dressing-up box spirit that has always underpinned lingerie design - from garter belts to bodysuits.
Buzz Shatford closed the show with a fluorescent homage to Toronto drag in winter. Tinsel, shimmering yarn, and crystallized raffia were sculpted into showstopping dresses and snowball-like pom-poms. His celebration of dressing up in subzero temperatures - heels and wigs braving snow, slush, and salt - echoes lingerie's resilience as both armor and art, a reminder that what we wear beneath is often the most daring statement of all.
Originally reported by WWD