The Central Saint Martins 2024 B.A. Graduate Show Got Personal, With a Protest Against Sponsor L’Oréal

LONDON — Set against a backdrop of pro-Palestine demonstrations and protests against sponsor L’Oréal, this year’s Central Saint Martins B.A. graduate show investigated the role of fashion in the wider world, and how it is used to communicate narratives about identity, religion and family.

Knitwear designer Patrick Garvey, who took home the L’Oréal Professionnel Young Talent Award, showed a collection filled with knit dresses in shades of turquoise, fuchsia and green, with crystals grown directly on the gowns.

Growing up in a Catholic household, Garvey reimagined his relationship with religion through the lens of new-age spirituality. 

“Catholicism is not where I find my inspiration, but I thought crystals would be a good place to find that [sense of] worship. The process and the ritual that I’ve undertaken making these garments really proved that,” he said.

Awarded second place was print designer Marina Ocampo, who drew on her upbringing in Buenos Aires. 

“Horses, gauchos, football, noise, heat and movement; romance, decadence and glamor,” the designer said, describing quintessentially Argentinian things that inspired her. 

Tasseled tops and skirts danced around the body, while floral prints, inspired by the fileteado art style, a traditional Argentinian floral painting technique, was reimagined as leather appliqués and printed on a chiffon skirt set.

Menswear designer Yodea Marquel Williams created conceptual, sculptural looks that made arcs through the air, and recalled tattered wings and open parachutes. The designer looked to where they grew up, in Seven Sisters in Tottenham, London, for inspiration. 

“Seven Sisters was named after seven elm trees surrounding an oak, which were planted by seven sisters, which I have,” they said. “I wanted to tell the story of my sisters, and the impact that women have had as a community in Tottenham.”

The collection featured cotton jersey dyed with herbs; reused paper pulp, and objects found around Tottenham. There were also motifs inspired by holes found in elm trees infected with Dutch Elm disease.

“Beatles inoculate the fungus into the tree, which kills it. I found that story quite beautiful, because it reminded me of the culture I grew up in, and how I feel like it’s kind of slowly washing away,” the designer said.

Ella Douglas incorporated her family’s tartan, and her obsession with truckers, on the runway, creating silhouettes that were studded, spiked and adorned with stainless steel exhaust pipes.

“Trucks are usually driven by quite macho men, but they spend money decorating them. It’s so camp,” said Douglas, a fashion design and marketing student who’s been reading “Semi Queer” by Anne Balay, a book about gay, transgender and Black long-haul truck drivers.

She fused the greasy, hard-edged world of trucking with feminine fabrics and bridalwear. One padded-shoulder dress was covered in more than 17,000 spikes, each of which was applied by hand.

Another dress made from gray jersey overlaid with mesh, wrapped around the body and was embellished with flocked polka dots and more than 15,000 studs.

Knitwear designer Thomas Spooner had a softer touch, using patterned textiles to create architectural, origami-like shapes.

He was inspired by his late grandfather’s ties and his grandmother’s scarves, creating a collection filled with antique floral prints, herringbone weaves and Fair Isle patterns in vintage blues, muted grays and mustard yellows.

The designer said his grandfather was “the main person in the family who was creative. I find it sad because I know if he was around now how close we would’ve been. I feel like there’s always some of his influence in everything I do,” said Spooner.

Off the runway, John Redman, who studied fashion design with marketing, created a collection inspired by his personal growth. Growing up as a dancer and now working in PR, Redman said he aimed to capture the transition between his adolescent and current self. 

“I was inspired by cabaret, like Liza Minnelli’s ‘Cabaret,’ and [the film] ‘Suspiria.’ There’s a bit of Morticia Adams and Cher in there,” too, the designer said.

“I work a lot on character. So I started with the characters I want and the world I want them to live in. She works at an office in the day, at a cabaret bar at night, but no one knows she’s secretly a witch,” he added.

Dancewear textiles, pleated crinolines, satins, a fringe made from individual threads hand sewn together by Redman, evoke feathery movement.

The protests continued well after the show had ended. Flyers had been printed by students featuring a red L’Oréal lipstick with the message, “Does lipstick work better when it’s covered in blood?” in red writing. Another piece of paper on the floor claimed, “L’Oréal is complicit in genocide.”