What do Central Saint Martins BA Fashion tutors really think?

Sarah Gresty, Course Leader, BA Fashion Design

How do you teach students to think like artists while still designing wearable clothing? 

Wearable clothing isn’t a focus on the course. There are enough garments in the world – we’re saturated with fast fashion. CSM is an art school. Our students are learning to develop their concepts around the body, while at the same time learning skills – often quite traditional skills, in draping, cutting, knitting, printing. Through lectures, workshops, industry talks and many different learning opportunities, we encourage students from the beginning of the course to make informed and intelligent statements that won’t contribute further to the issues in fashion systems.  We hope our students will initiate change.

For any project or their collection, a student develops a thorough body of research – in 2D and 3D, experimenting with materials and processes. They aim to narrate a unique story through their own perspective, often developing specific fibres, fabrication processes, shaping, casting and communication of the idea that it’s always around the body. 

How does London itself shape the kind of designers that come out of CSM?

London is incredible. It is so wonderfully diverse and textured. Of the 25 students in a class, half may be from the UK, but from different parts. Londoners have very different life experiences from elsewhere in Britain. Plus, all the fabulous International students from everywhere. You might have students from Ukraine, Italy, China – and Manchester – all responding to a brief, all talking together and sharing ideas, all processes. It’s that mix of ideas and culture that only happens in London.

How do you talk to students about failure?

I don’t talk to students about that, but I have noticed that it can really knock a student, especially in the first year, if they don’t get an A. There’s an idea that you come into something on an A, and then if you drop down, it means you’ve done something wrong. I do think students can be a little bit over obsessed with grades, especially in their first year. We much prefer a student to take risks – be brave. 

What’s one outdated idea about success in fashion that you try to challenge in the classroom? 

It’s this point about doing wearable commercial collections. We often say we can already find that on the high street. So why are you doing it? I understand, though, that sometimes a student just wants to learn the skill of making a tailored jacket. 

If you could redesign the fashion education system from scratch, what’s the first thing you change?

The fees and Brexit.

What’s next for students after they leave?

More graduates are choosing not to enter the fashion industry afterwards. The skills they learn on the course are transferable. Some develop their work and are considered more as artists or perhaps enter the music industry in some creative way, or theatre. 

What else is important?

It’s persistence and resilience. I know resilience is an overused word, but it’s relevant. I went to Paris when I graduated. I stayed for 10 years, but it took a while before things really happened for me. I’ve noticed some people give up too soon. I’d say to any graduate this year, just don’t give up and just keep at it, because you are going to get something, you must keep at it!

What’s your advice for students who constantly compare themselves to others in their class or online?

I honestly don’t think that’s too bad. I think it’s healthy up to a point. You need someone who you can pitch against.

Ike Rust, Pathway Leader, BA Fashion Design: Menswear

What’s one lesson you wish more fashion students actually listened to?

Don’t shit where you learn or work.

How has fashion education changed in the last 10 years – and is it for better or worse?

The student has changed. People with ambition and great ideas don’t bring them to fashion anymore – there’s not enough room between the shaming, negativity and corporate misery. That said, we instil enthusiasm and a high level of inquisitiveness and resilience. One excellent student this year did their DPS placement at ShelterSuit, working, in part, with homeless people. Fucking hats off people.

What do you look for in a student that signals they’ll do well after graduation?

That they have learned how to take care of themselves, their families, loved ones and community. 

What’s one outdated idea about success in fashion you try to challenge in the classroom?

That menswear is where ideas go to die.

How do you talk to students about failure? How much failure is necessary?

Students are naturally locked into the idea of failure because the punitive grade system classifies them as a success, good enough or a failure. And fashion aspires to set ideals about what success looks like. So, as part of learning we question that and encourage reaching into the unexpected through the chaos and mess. Success is a willingness to dare, for students to surprise themselves, to fall in love with their work even when that is the biggest fuck up of all. Designing means students can create a unique language around what they do. Whether spoken or felt – like the movement of scissors, the feeling of a certain material, instinct and gut – we just need to find a way to nourish industry with the same level of joy.

If you could redesign the fashion education system from scratch, what’s the first thing you’d change?

Stop academic policing.

What does being part of an art school give fashion students that a traditional design school can’t?

The freedom it gifts to students to learn to show the world who they are through what they do.

Anna-Nicole Ziesche, Joint Pathway Leader, BA Fashion Design: Womenswear

How do you talk to students about failure? How much failure is necessary?

Firstly, I despise the word ‘failure’ and don’t use it in my vocabulary. Obviously, if a student does not produce any work, then this student fails a project. 

Being able to produce thought-provoking, distinctive artistic work requires risk-taking, experience and discipline, involving a long journey of endless active processes and developments. On the way, some experiments and projects are less strong than others and do not work out as intended, so the student learns from it through assessing what could be done better and moving on.

I guide the students to learn how to see their own work. Being able to see their own work is crucial for students because, otherwise, they might miss that their ‘failed’ experiment is in fact a successful experiment – and the outcome is stronger than their original intention.

Vitally, I constantly champion taking risks with regard to self-disclosure, to change, to not knowing – and the risks regarding ‘failing’ when I lead and structure teaching sessions. I do this because demonstrating vulnerability enables students to better adjust and contribute to society for change and to have more control and ownership over their learning. 

As academic Brenda Leibowitz has elaborated: “For students to learn to live in an age of uncertainty or unsafety, it is also true that the lecturers themselves have to be prepared to learn, and to venture into hidden areas of self and unfamiliar theoretical study.”

How do you teach students to think like artists while still designing wearable clothing?

Why aim to design wearable clothing when studying on CSM BA Fashion? I teach students to become unique, responsible and inclusive thinkers who have the ability, courage and discipline to realise their groundbreaking visions.

Being a pioneer in fashion film and fashion performance, I represent and foster ‘the new idea’ and encourage students to push the boundaries through critically engaging with, and forming, complex and distinctive ideas. For learning, the students need from me the support to develop a new idea because “you cannot plan for the new, since by definition it arrives out of the conditions that give rise to it” (to quote Simeon Lauterbach). I focus on providing a safe space to think through complex concepts without fear of judgement and support and advance our students to build more challenging and personal narratives around their initial ideas.

 As a BA Fashion Course, we have the responsibility to provide our students with a strong foundation to enable them to translate their ideas. Therefore, we teach our students the necessary skills and knowledge such as pattern cutting, sewing, drawing, research, cultural studies, sustainability, inclusivity and digital skills such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Clo3D etc. In addition, we offer a placement year in the industry utilising and advancing our immense network. All this enables our students to design wearable clothing if required.

Heather Sproat, Joint Pathway Leader, BA Fashion Design: Womenswear

What does being part of an art school give fashion students that a traditional design school can’t?

Art school mentality. A technical college will teach them what a skirt is, what a skirt has been and how to make a skirt. Whereas at an art school we say, what is a skirt? What has a skirt never been? What could a skirt be? Here is your space, here is your time, here is your context. Take some time, explore, experiment, expand, invent and be innovative. 

In an art school we’re working very much on a conceptual way of thinking so we’re asking them to refresh themselves with the context of time, to work in a way where we’re throwing ourselves into the future, where there is only imagination, only creativity. 

We are creatives – we bring them in, and, of course, we would like to think we are rigorous in our technical education, but we’re not telling them how to do things. We’re constantly questioning what something could become.

For me, that’s the difference between a technical school and an art school education.

What’s one outdated idea about success in fashion you try to challenge in the classroom? 

That they’re going to be – fairly quickly – the creative director of a major fashion house. There is so much to learn. We teach them up to a stage and what we teach is hopefully a system and process of design that is nourishing for them and with which, as a designer, they can have a 60-year career. What we teach them is a methodology of working, but there is so much more to learn about the business and industry of fashion on the job. To expect somebody to either leave and start a very successful brand, or to leave and go straight into a creative directorship would probably be harmful to them as a designer and they would burn out. 

Is talent overrated in fashion education? What matters more? 

I love quoting this to my students: “hard work wins when talent doesn’t work”. Of course, we have the great privilege of working with students who are incredibly talented [but] it’s the students who have the greatest work ethic, who are willing to turn up, who are flexible and willing to turn their head to any task with – hopefully – a little bit of joy. It’s always the students who are earnest, who are ambitious and who are curious. Who are passionate. They always win over the students who think they know it all. 

Kit Neale, Pathway Leader, BA Fashion Design: Fashion Print

How has fashion education changed in the last 10 years – and is it for better or worse?

There have been some genuinely positive changes in fashion education, particularly around student wellness, welfare and inclusivity within our learning environments and wider communities. However, in the UK, the picture is complicated. Despite clear evidence that graduates from creative-focused universities and colleges contribute billions to the UK economy and to local and global economies wherever they settle, chronic underfunding of the arts over the past decade has severely damaged the infrastructure of creative education. The impact is real, profound and ongoing – most days, I feel like I’m running a fashion hospital with no budget – just vibes and duct tape.

What do you look for in a student that signals they’ll do well after graduation?

A willingness to learn and to try things – even if they might fail. Curiosity, critical thinking and the drive to keep improving. Someone who is brave enough to push past their own fears and limitations. Importantly, someone who is absolutely obsessed with the subject they’re studying – that helps! And a humbleness.

What’s your advice for students who constantly compare themselves to others in their class or online?

This is tricky. We all compare ourselves, but you’ve got to learn from others and not compare yourself to them. It’s easier said than done, of course, but try not to assume what other people are thinking. Something might be praised publicly, but privately, they think it’s uninspiring. What truly matters is what you think. Listen and take in other perspectives, but filter them through your own lens. Have a viewpoint.

Do fashion students today take enough creative risks, or are they too focused on being “industry ready”?

Can you take too many creative risks? I don’t think you can, but I get why a student might hold back. The current higher education system in the UK – with its emphasis on graded assessments, student satisfaction surveys and the financial and societal pressures that come with being a student in the creative fields – all work against risk-taking. Create a splash of chaos.

How do you talk to students about failure? How much failure is necessary?

I talk about failure a lot. It’s not a bad thing. Half of my job is moonlighting as a motivational speaker for flops. We learn by failing, we innovate by screwing things up. Failure is where the magic happens. Not trying is far worse than trying and falling short. And really, is it even a failure if you learn something from it?

If you could redesign the fashion education system from scratch, what’s the first thing you’d change?

I’d make it socially democratic. That would address the root causes of many of the industry’s problems, where greed often takes precedence over creativity, care and compassion.

How do you teach students to think like artists while still designing wearable clothing?

I actually dislike the term wearable. If it goes on the body, guess what, it’s wearable. What matters is that we don’t subordinate the wearer, whether that’s a model, muse or consumer. The real question is: Why wear it? Who is it for? What story does it tell? I push students to think about community, identity, culture and intention. When you understand your own values, you start designing with purpose, not because it might look good in Instagram.

Stephanie Cooper, Pathway Leader, BA Fashion Design with Marketing (renamed Fashion Design: Communication from September 2025)

What do you look for in a student that signals they’ll do well after graduation?

They don’t just follow the brief; they subvert it, question it, take ownership and create magic. They take feedback as a challenge and engage critically with the world around them. Being technically confident helps, but it’s adaptability, courage and tenacity that carry you further. Not necessarily the loudest, but the most relentless, committed and obsessive.

How should students respond when their dream job doesn’t exist anymore?

Shed a tear for a minute, set it on fire, then dream of something better. The industry is full of ghosts. No one’s going to save you. Make your own role, your own rituals, your own way to produce work that you believe in.

What’s one outdated idea about success in fashion you try to challenge in the classroom?

That success looks like front rows, followers, influencers or your name on a shop window. Success might be a more anonymous underground studio, a loyal following, a creative community, a lifetime in the making. It’s not always shiny. Sometimes it’s quiet, meaningful and radical. 

What’s your advice for students who constantly compare themselves to others in their class or online?

Comparison is counter-productive and a bit of a slow poison. Kill it with curiosity. Ask yourself what excites you. Get obsessed with your own uniqueness and personal branding. No one can beat you at being you, unless you’re trying to be someone else. 

How do you talk to students about failure? How much failure is necessary?

There are no actual right or wrong answers; there are only choices, forks in the road leading to more forks in the road. As creatives, we face relentless expectations that are never fully achieved but are always there to be reached for in a ritualistic battle of fantasy versus reality. You can never know enough of all that is knowable – and I’m addicted to going on that impossible journey every day with anyone who wants to step off the edge with me.