Filipino designer Jessan Macatangay won an award for his womenswear master’s degree after making waves with his undergrad collection in 2020.
Compared to its counterparts, something special about London Fashion Week is the fresh talent. Although new designers make showcases in Paris, New York, and Milan as well, London is the home to Central St. Martins (CSM).
The internationally-renowned center for arts and design education is ranked by Business of Fashion as the top global fashion school. Yearly, the graduating fashion class shows their final collection at LFW—you can think of it as an equivalent to a final exam.
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However, the pandemic made it difficult for students, given London’s March 2020 lockdown shut down in-person classes. In effect, the pandemic robbed the graduating class of two years ago of an in-person show. Instead, they had digital presentations with 90-second segments for each designer.
Fortunately, this year’s graduating MA Fashion students are finishing their degrees at the same time the world is opening up again.
This year, CSM continues its 20 year-long partnership with L’Oréal Professionnel to award and sponsor the most promising designers of each class. “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,” wrote Paul Toner of 10Magazine about the graduating show.
The awards were judged by fashion editors and directors Tianwei Zhang of WWD, British Vogue’s Julia Sarr-James, and I-D’s Osman Ahmed.
Jessan Macatangay from the Philippines and Londoner Ed Mendoza share the prestigious award that helps sponsor their budding careers. Previous winners include the “daughter of the digital revolution” Mary Kataranzou for her innovative computer-based prints and Grace Wales-Bonner, who uses her work to “address the politics of identity, sexuality, and race.”
Here Macatangay and Mendoza’s collections, along with the other stand-out shows we love from London Fashion Week’s emerging talent.
Jessan Macatangay
On February 20, the Filipino designer won the L’Oréal Professionnel Womenswear Creative Award after showcasing his graduating collection. With “Sculptural Sensuality,” Macatangay created a modern collection of body-hugging pieces with cutouts, protruding details, and three-dimensional stitching.
Previously, Macatangay, who finished his bachelor’s degree in fashion design last 2020, was already making waves in the global fashion scene. He was featured in Vogue in the US, Hong Kong, Italy, WWD, and The New York Times for his undergraduate collection.
Locally, his collection appeared in Mega magazine’s November 2020 print run. In a social media post, he said, “I have been reading this magazine since I was a teen, and now my work is in it.”
Ed Mendoza
The MA Fashion (Textiles for Fashion) graduate and L’Oréal Professionnel Creative co-awardee displayed a spectacle of loud color, print, and oversized silhouettes worn by diverse models. For Mendoza, born from a Grenadian mother and a Peruvian father, inclusivity still lacks fashion.
He created a collection he would want to see in line with this. “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,” Mendoza told Vogue. “, especially for people of color. 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.”
Pauline Dujancourt
The knitwear designer creates intricate hybrid pieces through hand knitting. A look into her collection titled “Dysfunctional Beauty” displays webs of delicate knits inspired by women of East Germany. In fact, the practice is sentimental to her as she finds comfort in “realizing that no matter what, it was still possible to make, with me alone with two knitting needles.”
Before entering the Master’s program, Dujancourt worked in New York and London for Alexander Wang, Simone Rocha, Molly Goddard, and Phoebe English.
Brandon Choi
Choi’s collection named “Wear and Tear” was thought up in quarantine while he was draping at home, “when all this packaging kept arriving when I was draping at home. I thought, “I’ll use that!'”
What was born from the Chanel and British Fashion Council scholar’s idea was a set using paper, tulle, and a whole gown made of calico (a raw and undyed fabric).
Banner photo from @JessanMacatangay on Instagram.
