MA Fashion Students From Central Saint Martins Unveil Their Graduate Collections With Two Designers Sharing The L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award.
February 20th 2022 : Today the L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award was shared by Ed Mendoza (Textiles for Fashion) and Jessan Macatangay (Womenswear).
This year's judging panel included Tian Wei Zhang, London/China Market Editor at WWD, Julia Sarr-Jamois, Fashion Director for British Vogue and Osman Ahmed Fashion Features at i-D.
"Diversity, inclusion, community purpose, and creative solutions abounded," wrote Sarah Mower in Vogue while Paul Toner at 10 magazine concluded "The CSM MA show is always astounding, but this year’s showcase felt particularly brilliant. With these designers at the forefront, fashion’s future looks bright."
The show represented the return of MA Fashion to physical presentations at the College following the pandemic.
They marked this return with a collaboration with M ARCH: Architecture students who created the catwalk environment as well as an exhibition in the Lethaby Gallery (catch all 55 graduating MA Fashion students on show in SHINY SHINY at the Lethaby Gallery, 21 February – 2 March).
Ed Mendoza, MA Fashion (Textiles for Fashion)
“My mum’s from Grenada and St. Lucia, and my dad’s from Peru. I wanted to flip the narrative, to see that representation... Especially when I was younger, if I saw something like this, that would have made me feel better about how my body is. It’s really important to see someone who looks like you – especially for people of colour. It’s inclusivity too for people who don’t see themselves as male or female. I feel like we’ve not seen that in fashion.”
“I think different things: I’m an illustrator, I’m a designer, I’m a printer-textiles. On my internship, a lot of the people were menswear students and I always felt like I wasn’t the best because I do fashion print. But when I was the only one who knew how to (screen) print, it made me realise what was amazing about being a print student. In fashion print and knit you’re making textiles and you have to pattern cut and you need to know how to connect things together. In the industry, you’re not just going to be pattern cutting, it’s not just a silhouette.”
Jessan Macatangay, MA Fashion (Womenswear)
Jessan Macatangay is from Batangas, in the Philippines.
He has worked for Marc Jacobs as a runway design intern and on womenswear at JW Anderson.
‘My collection is about finding beauty and power in a struggle.’ Inspired by couturier Madame Grès, Melanie Bonajo’s photographs and the paintings of Filipino artist Benedicto Cabrera, Macatangay’s collection is both stylish and surreal.
Comprised of sculptural shapes, primarily made from reclaimed chairs, which envelop the body, forged in an array of matte and chrome finishes; contrasted by swathes of pleated lycra and jersey.
‘In lockdown I had to change a lot of my design process. My fabric supplier abruptly closed, I had to dye and print my fabrics myself. I had no access to workshops either, so I worked with scrap materials, put together using tools I bought online.’
In the future he’s planning on doing an MA in womenswear at Central Saint Martins, and eventually starting his own brand.
