| By susie_bubble On an international level, of all the student shows to
watch in London, the Central St. Martin's BA show
ranks pretty highly. I don't necessarily believe it produces
the most interesting work out of all the schools in
the UK (RCA, Middlesex and Westminster are
my preferred ones to watch...), however with the
'name' of the school, and the calibre of past
students, these grads really can't be ignored. If
I'm honest, I personally wasn't blown away
by the bulk of the show but the ones that shone,
REALLY shone. There had to be the one grad
that went for dramatic shock factor and that
was Maki Ichikawa who has couture aspirations
and made a Hussein Chalayan (who incidentally
teaches at CSM)-esque statement with her
Metronome dress, inspired by the Industrial
Revolution and the passing of time.  
The L'Oreal Professionnel fund award went
to Jack Isenberg for his intricate laser cut
leather and tulle dresses. The standout piece
of his collection (and probably the whole show)
was the lace cut out bulbous-cage dress, worn
by Olivia Inge but the abundance of rasberry
chiffon in his other pieces looked too much
on the heavy side.
 
The thing I found with most of the students'
work was the unnecessary excessiveness of it
all which is something that I would usually applaud
but somehow in the collections didn't work for me.
The standout for me was David Komakhidze
whose work reminds me a little of Thierry
Mugler but with less emphasis on the 'power-
bot femme'. He won the second prize in the
funding award. The metalwork on the dresses
are quite stunning when paired with the softly
shaped dresses underneath. Without sounding
trite, and in agreement with various papers,
I do believe we have a 'one to watch' on our hands.
Christopher Kane is only in his second season
and already he has a successor hot on his heels.
  
Others which I personally found interesting
but I'm probably in the minority were Elodie
Giraud and her strangely evocative mix of
textures and 'funny' shapes, Hyun A Lee's
trompe d'oeil layered pieces (the excessiveness
worked here...) and the deceptively simple and
white collection from Olga Kazakova.
  
I simply must start keeping a database
of names on an Excel spreadsheet or something
to keep track of their whereabouts and going-on's.
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