On Monday 20th February, twenty Masters in Fashion students from the graduating class of 2023 at Central Saint Martins (CSM), UAL, had the opportunity to present their creations on the runway at London Fashion Week.
The creations were the result of months of research, design and manufacture under the guidance of Fabio Piras, course director of the academy’s fashion course.
Sponsor L’Oréal has bestowed several awards on CSM’s emerging designers, as well as its annual tradition of recognizing three students from the graduating class.
Student Yaku Stapleton took home the L’Oréal Professionel Creative Award 2023 for his collection titled “The Impossible Family Reunion in RPG Space: Research into the Afro-Futurism Movement.
For his collection, he drew inspiration from his past and what a cross between online role-playing games and his research on perception, scale and human form would be.
Central Saint Martins Graduating Class 2023 Recognized with Three Awards
The L’Oréal Professional competition was judged by Ib Kamara, Art and Image Director at Off-White and Editor-in-Chief at Dazed.
Designer Yaku Stapleton commented on his win in a statement. “I’m still speechless and I think it will be a while before I feel back on Earth,” he said.
”I already felt over the moon producing a collection I was so proud of, so receiving the L’Oréal Professionel award was completely surreal for me.”
In addition to the award courtesy of sponsor L’Oréal, a second award, the Canada Goose’ Humanature Award for Responsible Design, was awarded to two students from the Central Saint Martins 2023 graduating class.
Designer Chié Kaya was recognized for her collection entitled ‘Heirloom’, a reconstruction of a contemporary men’s and women’s wardrobe.
Student Alessandro Tondolo was the second recipient of the Canada Goose ‘Humanature Award’. He presented his postgraduate collection ‘Cohaeresco’, which in Latin means ‘to grow together’, highlighting the dissonance between humans and nature in his designs.