Palestine protesters take over the Central Saint Martins grad show

The last two months have seen students across the globe come together to take direct action against the ongoing massacre happening in Palestine. From the United States, to France, the UK and beyond, young people have been protesting in their masses outside their universities, taking residence in makeshift camps and calling for the institutions they plough money into via extortionate school fees to divest from organisations linked to Israeli Defence Forces. 

Last night, these protests expanded to the annual end-of-year BA fashion show at Central Saint Martins, where third-year students graduating as part of the revered school’s class of 2024 presented their final collections. Students from UAL, which CSM is part of, congregated outside the entrance to the show, waving placards calling for a ceasefire, international aid, and ‘Peace for Palestine’. Many wore the Palestinian Keffiyeh around their faces and draped across their bodies.

Inside, protesters lined the balconies on the floors above the atrium where the show took place, dropping a huge patchwork banner directly above the catwalk. Across it, messages including ‘Stop Genocide, Free Palestine’, ‘Ceasefire Now’, and ‘Money for jobs and education NOT for war and occupation’ had been stitched, alongside the Palestinian flag and watermelons. Along the sidelines, kids carried placards reading ‘All eyes on Rafah’. 

Throughout the show, the students shouted ‘Free Palestine’, while calling for boycotts of L’Oreal, which sponsors the CSM BA show annually and supports three winning designers with funds as the graduate from the school. L’Oreal is currently listed on the BDS boycott list. Later, they dropped messages calling for UAL to ‘Divest our money from banks and businesses funding Israel’ and highlighting that there were ‘No universities left in Gaza’. 

The students are part of a group which has formed its own encampment outside CSM, with many later handing out leaflets outlining their demands to people as they left the show. Among them, they are asking UAL to state support for a ceasefire, divest from brands and schools with ties to Israel, and CSM Dean Allan Atlee to publicly retract his threat of police action and confirm freedom of speech. 

The CSM grad shows are a big moment for the students who have scored places on its fashion courses, with key industry figures looking to spot the next big talent in attendance each year. But rather than being worried about the protest being a distraction from their work, backstage, the designers Dazed spoke to showed unanimous support for the action, with many participating in demonstrations within the school and beyond. This year’s L’Oreal Prize winner, Patrick Garvey, called the grad show protest “So necessary”. “We need to make sure people are aware of what’s happening in Rafah right now,” he added. 

Click through the gallery above to revisit our photos of Leeds University’s encampment, and head here to read about why students are protesting in their droves at their universities. Dazed will be highlighting the Class of 2024 designers to watch later today [May 30].