Latest news with #CentralSaintMartins
Hypebeast
41 minutes ago
- Business
- Hypebeast
Former Sies Marjan Designer Sander Lak Is Launching a Namesake Menswear Brand
Sander Lak, the brain behind the beloved and now-closed New York labelSies Marjan, is returning to the fashion circle with the launch of his own namesake brand. Stylized as Sanderlak, the imprint is set to debut during Paris Fashion Week Men's later this month. Lak, who boasts a Master's degree in menswear from Central Saint Martins, spent five formative years designing both men's and womenswear at Dries Van Noten, before launching Sies Marjan in 2016. Despite backing from billionaire husband and wife Nancy and Howard Marks, a CFDA Emerging Designer of the Year trophy, and prime placement on the likes of Barneys New York's shelves, the label was forced toclose its doorsin 2020 due to the financial impact of the COVID crisis. Sanderlak, funded in part by angel investors, will see Lak design menswear-inspired collections shaped by his own global upbringing (he grew up between Malaysia, Gabon, Scotland, and the Netherlands) and his 'ongoing exploration of identity and place.' Each collection will center around a specific location, which will inform the line's themes, colors, fabrics, and demeanor. Sanderlak will release two main collections each year. The brand will debut its first line in Paris through private appointments next month.
Fashion Network
5 days ago
- Business
- Fashion Network
H&M/Central Saint Martins reveal Sustainable Fashion & Journalism Award winners
Central Saint Martins /University of the Arts London has announced the names of four of its students who've won the H&M Sustainable Fashion and Journalism award, that supports emerging designers and journalists. The quartet will share a £16,000 grant to support them in finalising their graduate collections and projects. The SFJ award winners are: Lucas Lidy - BA Fashion Design, Menswear; Ella Davies - BA Fashion Design, Womenswear; Mia Brimilcombe-Cowie - BA Fashion Design, Womenswear; and Dominique McDonnell-Palomares - BA Fashion Communication. The winners, selected from 45 applicants, were judged on their alignment with H&M's own values and ongoing Inclusion & Diversity work and Central Saint Martins' own policies. Factors such as academic merit, financial need and demonstrable commitment to sustainability and sustainable practices were considered, ensuring that the winners are committed to working towards making the fashion industry more inclusive and accessible for emerging talent, with a focus on creating a more circular industry. In addition to the prize, support including mentorship and networking opportunities to be provided by H&M's head office team. 'The selected students -- across both design and communication -- demonstrated a shared commitment to fashion innovation and environmental responsibility, an essential combination for shaping the future of the industry. Their creativity not only pushed the boundaries of style and storytelling but also embraced durability and sustainability at its core. These emerging talents are leading the way toward a more conscious, inclusive, and enduring fashion industry,' said Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M Head of Design.
Fashion Network
5 days ago
- Business
- Fashion Network
H&M/Central Saint Martins reveal Sustainable Fashion & Journalism Award winners
Central Saint Martins /University of the Arts London has announced the names of four of its students who've won the H&M Sustainable Fashion and Journalism award, that supports emerging designers and journalists. The quartet will share a £16,000 grant to support them in finalising their graduate collections and projects. The SFJ award winners are: Lucas Lidy - BA Fashion Design, Menswear; Ella Davies - BA Fashion Design, Womenswear; Mia Brimilcombe-Cowie - BA Fashion Design, Womenswear; and Dominique McDonnell-Palomares - BA Fashion Communication. The winners, selected from 45 applicants, were judged on their alignment with H&M's own values and ongoing Inclusion & Diversity work and Central Saint Martins' own policies. Factors such as academic merit, financial need and demonstrable commitment to sustainability and sustainable practices were considered, ensuring that the winners are committed to working towards making the fashion industry more inclusive and accessible for emerging talent, with a focus on creating a more circular industry. In addition to the prize, support including mentorship and networking opportunities to be provided by H&M's head office team. 'The selected students -- across both design and communication -- demonstrated a shared commitment to fashion innovation and environmental responsibility, an essential combination for shaping the future of the industry. Their creativity not only pushed the boundaries of style and storytelling but also embraced durability and sustainability at its core. These emerging talents are leading the way toward a more conscious, inclusive, and enduring fashion industry,' said Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M Head of Design.
Vogue Arabia
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue Arabia
Leo Costelloe's Subversive Delicate Jewellery is Not as Innocent as it Seems
There's something about a bow that defies expectation. At first glance, it is a soft, ornamental flourish – the final flounce on a dress, the giddy excess of childhood. But in Leo Costelloe's hands, it is anything but. Here, bows are cast in metal, caught mid-collapse, rigid and unrelenting. They hold their shape with a kind of defiant beauty, a contradiction that sits at the very core of Costelloe's work, where the delicate is made durable, the saccharine tinged with a little edge. This is not a bow as you know it. Costelloe's jewellery refuses to be boxed in. It's neither purely fashion nor strictly art. Instead, it hovers in the liminal space between adornment and object, personal talisman and cultural critique. Born in Canberra, Australia, far from any traditional fashion capital, Costelloe's upbringing, immersed in nature, shaped his sensitivity to form and fragility. While studying jewellery design in London at Central Saint Martins, Costelloe worked as a florist, a job that honed the instinct for arrangement and ephemerality. It was during this time that the multidisciplinary artist and jeweller began experimenting with the tension between sentimentality and subversion, laying the foundations for his quietly transgressive approach to craft. Soft-spoken, with a halo of shaggy ginger-blonde curls, Costelloe feels like a natural conduit for his creations. 'I've never really designed with a specific character or story in mind,' he explains. 'It's more about looking towards my own sensitivity to materials and aesthetics.' That sensitivity is razor-sharp. Costelloe takes familiar objects – from chain links to cutlery – and wrenches them from their usual contexts, forcing a fresh reconsideration. The mundane shifts into the unexpected. Everyday forks and spoons become ornamental accessories – table jewellery, if you will. Stripped of function and cast in silver, their distorted forms reject tradition, challenging passive femininity with a subtle sneer at domesticity. It's a fork, yes, but good luck trying to eat with it. Yet, in the right hands, these creations still hold tenderness – on the user's terms. Photo: Leo Costelloe At its core, Costelloe's practice is about self-actualisation through materiality – how the things we wear can shape us, transform us and help us assume new versions of ourselves. 'I like the idea of dressing up, of adornment as a way to assert identity,' Leo explains. The pieces are often described as 'femininely dark', though this is not about gender; it's about power in softness, steeliness in the fragile. The ribbons aren't quaint; they bind, they secure, they hold tight. 'Ribbons historically denote ideas around connection, fastening, joining and I like the idea that maybe my ribbons might inspire a sense of connection and community in other people.' Each piece is made by hand, forged from sheets and wire, ensuring that no two are exactly alike. 'I like to think of them as protective offerings,' Costelloe says. There is a talismanic quality to the work, an energy transfer from maker to wearer. The jewellery does not simply sit on the body; it embeds itself in the wearer's world, taking on new meanings over time. 'A small ring given by a lover can hold immense meaning, even if to others it's just an object.' That tension, between private significance and public subtlety, is one that Costelloe finds fascinating, particularly in the context of masculinity. Jewellery, once a marker of male status and power, is now shifting into a space of quiet, deeply personal expression. 'Leo's jewellery attracts those who seek meaning in what they wear. In a market flooded with mass production, clients gravitate towards designs with character pieces that feel personal and irreplaceable,' explains Leslie Milkie, merchandiser at Dover Street Market New York, where Costelloe's work is stocked. It's this pursuit of meaning, rather than trends, that anchors Costelloe's approach. 'The pieces happen to be on trend right now, but that's not why they exist,' offers the designer in his considered manner. 'I don't want to be part of something that will pass.' Looking forward, Costelloe's world is expanding. A fragrance is in the works, an olfactory extension to a carefully created universe. October will see an unveiling of a new body of sculptural works at Sadie Coles HQ in London, further pushing the boundaries between jewellery and object, adornment and art. Costelloe speaks of wanting to collaborate more, to explore jewellery on a larger scale without losing the intimacy of the handmade. But no matter where the work goes next, its essence remains the same: an exploration of sentiment, materiality and the subtle ways objects tether us to ourselves and to one another. 'If my jewellery could talk,' Costelloe muses, 'I'd want it to say that the people who wear it are special and safe.'
Fashion United
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion United
'House of McQueen' off-Broadway production to open ahead of NYFW
A new off-Broadway production centering on the life of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen is set to debut just ahead of New York Fashion Week. Named House of McQueen, the show is written by Darren Cloud and directed by Sam Helfrich, with Gary James, the nephew of the late designer, serving as creative director. A retelling of McQueen's life, the production aims to highlight his groundbreaking work and the personal journey behind it, which is marked by triumphs, challenges, and an enduring creative legacy that will likely resonate with a new generation. 'We are trying to touch on issues that are relevant to a younger generation, issues like bullying, rejection, homophobia, depression, and even suicide in the hope that this is a healing story,' said Rick Lazes, executive producer of the show, in an interview with Vogue. For James, who worked in McQueen's menswear department for seven years and was responsible for designing the brand's now-iconic show invitations, regarded as collector's items today, preserving and honoring his uncle's enduring legacy is vitally important. 'A lot of the younger generation don't really understand the person behind the brand,' said James to Vogue. More than ten years in the making, the production joins the growing list of retrospectives launched since Alexander McQueen's passing 15 years ago. For example, the Costume Institute's landmark 2011 exhibition, Savage Beauty, celebrated his visionary work, followed by Dana Thomas's 2015 biography, which explored his meteoric rise and personal struggles. The 2018 documentary directed by Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui took a closer look at his creative genius, while the enduring impact of his muse and patron, Isabella Blow, will soon be revisited in the forthcoming biopic The Queen of Fashion. Following the show's premiere in early September, complementary production is set to launch in Los Angeles a few weeks later. Titled Provocateur, the immersive installation leverages advanced technologies, including holography and projection mapping, to chronicle pivotal chapters of McQueen's life, from his early years at home and studies at Central Saint Martins to his formative experience in a Savile Row tailor shop, according to co-creator Lazes. The installation includes an interactive virtual component developed in partnership with Dressx, allowing visitors to digitally 'try on' archival looks from McQueen's Horn of Plenty and No.9 collections. Kering, the parent company of the McQueen brand, which dropped the late designer and founder's first name from its marketing following the arrival of creative director Sean McGirr last year, has no official involvement in either projects. However, a selection of archival designs by McQueen, generously loaned by private collectors, will be exhibited in a venue adjacent to the theatre where House of McQueen will run.
