Saranya Umashankar is the first-year Womenswear student at Central Saint Martins who takes inspiration for her whimsical designs from Mata Hari, who Umashankar believes to be “the embodiment of power in female disguise.”

Colours are what fascinate designer, Joost Jansen the most: “I’m trained as a trend designer, but I don’t care about seasonal trend colours or patterns. For me it’s more about finding the freshest, not the newest colour combination.”

Roshan Whittaker’s autobiographical series “showcases a conditioned performance to ensure gratification, purpose and popularity. We pose for this artificial world, enslaving ourselves to these social pressures that dictate and enforce creativity, abundance and happiness when in fact we feel the opposing.”

For Philadelphia-born, New York-based creative, Anna Koblish, photography isn’t about pouting duck-lips or catfish clout. It’s a weapon of self-esteem that can chip away insecurities one click at a time.

Studio Infinity is a platform for designers and artists creating digital fashion shows, 3D fashion design and augmented reality through gender fluidity, cyber-feminism and collaboration. “What we are doing is not replacing what is real,” says the studio’s Art Director and Curator. “3D is not an end in itself or an aesthetic, it’s a tool for creation.”

Originally from Shetland, Andrew Sutherland is the mask-maker and knitter who is the very mirror of the mundane, his vivid, architectural masterpieces with their bright colour palettes, multiple textures and structural experimentation lying somewhere between the novel and the familiar.

“The world [will] be so polluted at some point that we’ll find plastic even in our fruits,” admits London College of Fashion womenswear student, Alesia.

You can almost smell the sass pouring from Santa Calata’s nail embellished gloves. With pieces ranging from puffer corsets and mixed textured knitwear to garments that flip a middle finger to the confines of sexual expression, Santa Calata is strictly genderless. In doing so, the brand is an instrument of transgression, finding the freedom of mind, body and soul in its designs. 

Multi-faceted creative, The Lizard Queen, functions with a natural adaptability like a chameleon. When she’s not shooting through a wide-angle lens or editing fire looks in heatmap colours, Nancy McNulty sits on her scaled scaled throne in Cold Blooded Kingdom (CBK); her self-launched fashion brand of avant-garde clothing for everyday wear.

If you’re stuck in your jewellery ways, Caroline Ohrt is on hand to shake up your accessories game. An earring that resembles the cross section of a brain, made out of an up-cycled resin coated leaf. Another, a coated and embellished crumpled up, old Extra gum wrapper. Or a creased up supermalt label struck with a line of jewels. And that barely scratches the surface.

With “a collection inspired by forgotten roots and research focusing on traditional Irish textiles,” CSM Knitwear student, Patrick Garvey, transforms folk garments into modern day shapes bursting with colour and energy.

Founded by Malaysian designers, Moto Guo and Kinder Eng, eponymous label, motoguo, is a means for the duo to engage in the exploration of gender, fashion and fluidity while sharing equal footing in the managing and creative direction of the emerging brand.

Branded as the “biggest school disappointment,” a conventional approach to a design career was side-lined by Paulina and Przemysław of womenswear brand, Fal-Ash, in favour of collaborating with Brutaż, a Polish party series, showcasing techno and experimental electronic music. Eurotrash? More like Eurotreasure.

Imagine a whimsical funfair where the clouds are candyfloss, carousel horses roam free and clowns flaunt chromatic dreamcoats with oversized buttons and bulging sleeves. For Diane Gaignoux, such imagination is threaded into her design identity. Using a felt-needling method, the French designer makes emotive clothing inspired by our alter egos – with a sprinkle of circus magic.

These days masculinity gets a bad rep, but Jimmy Howe wants to change that. The CSM MA Menswear student is using his designs to subvert the toxicity of manhood and dissect what male means in 2021, all with the aim of creating “healthy menswear”.

Instantly recognisable for their iconic ‘Swipe for Wipe’ beauty images, make-up artist and self-professed drag clown Bo Quinn is the bold, colourful and futuristic creative that we all need right about now. And with a growing fan base, it looks like everyone else feels the same way too.

Liv Burden’s latest self-portrait series tells a tale of escape and self-discovery, mirroring the story of Rapunzel and the confinement felt in her tower. The soon-to-be-published book was made during the Covid pandemic which inspires many of the series’ themes from false senses of reality to struggles between confinement and freedom.

Defined as a ‘whale tail’, the latest trend to hit the streets (thank God we’re allowed outside again) is the Y-shaped waistband of a thong being pulled up above the waistline of our favourite denim jeans and trousers, resembling none other than, you guessed it, the shape of a whale's tail.

Inspired by the resurgence of all things y2k, Antonia Louisa pulls together a shoot with enough denim, neons and DKNY for any millennial baby to go green with envy.

Inspired by moth fairies and flies, CSM first-year student, Tasnim, “became fascinated by how vivid this dream [of insects] was and wanted to explore this world and the characters in more depth. This allowed me to visualise the silhouette and shapes in a clearer way. The garment is a representation of this world and what it beholds.”