Central Saint Martins Reset Show 2024: Collaboration, circularity, and carefully-planned chaos

For newly admitted students, the pressure of hundreds of eyes on their work is intense – but this year’s class has taken the bull by the horns. Lorenzo Bartocci, the student who led the art direction for the show, sets out their manifesto: “In an industry that puts the weight of professionalism and commercialism on students from such an early stage of their training and career, we want to give back to the designers the right to be wild, experimental, and artistic.”

On the day of the show, the stairwells, balconies, and classroom windows overlooking ‘The Street’, CSM’s central atrium, are stuffed with students jockeying to get a good view of the runway space below. The building heaves with excited chatter as students run to and fro, doing last-minute errands or simply searching for their friends in the stampede of spectators. “CSM is a place of spectacle, notorious for its exclusiveness and wildness,” Lorenzo says. “The idea of CSM as a zoo embraces the spectacle while challenging the dynamics between the voyeuristic gaze of the audience and the creative freedom of designers. It’s a play on control and wildness, an ode to chaos and experimentation.”

Formerly known as the White Show, the first-year, first-term project was rebranded in 2023 to reflect a new circular format that limits fabric waste and production. For its second iteration, there really was a reset – the initial partnership with circular textile recycling company Renewcell (now called Circulose) fell apart as they declared bankruptcy only a few months after the inaugural Reset Show. This year – alongside long-term partners L’Oréal Professionnel and Ultrasuede by Toray – the project was supported by Elis and LMB. The hospitality linens company and textile reuse and recycling company both operate circular business models, providing the course with laundered white tablecloths that had reached the end of their hospitality life.

Sarah Gresty, BA Fashion Course Leader, explains the process of the project: “It started over 20 years ago, and it was an opportunity for students to create a look and develop a body of research.” The first-year design students are given three themes to choose from and, from there, are tasked with exploring and experimenting until they reach a unique and personal outcome. “However, they all are given the same qualities of fabric.” The resulting parade of inventive and intricate silhouettes completely renews the fabrics. There are dramatic tailored looks reminiscent of McQueen and Galliano, avant-garde gowns that manipulate the body, and beautifully laced eyelets holding together historically informed pieces. The same white materials are scrunched and draped and shredded into textural garments and sculpted into accessories like a giant ‘paper’ airplane and a working skateboard resembling a dragon.

How can fashion communicators not only adopt circular practices but also play within them as the designers have done? Alle Muya, the student head of PR and communications for the project, explains the more conceptual facet of circularity: “While circularity is traditionally applied to the production and manufacturing of clothing, we’ve interpreted it as a mindset that fosters resourcefulness, collaboration, and a sustainable approach to storytelling in fashion communication and promotion.” Ares Karagiannis highlights the practical steps they took in production: “From the lookbook backgrounds to the show’s set design, as a team, we made it a priority to use recyclable and second-hand materials, always considering how they can be reused or responsibly managed afterwards and the set design team has really embraced this focus, too.”

“From concept to execution, they tackle every aspect of Fashion Communication, learning teamwork, humility, and the power of collaboration. This project isn’t just big – it’s transformative. We know we are asking a lot from them, but we are always excited to see how they rise to this challenge. It’s one of the most anticipated events in the CSM calendar, so each year Fashion Communication students want to raise the bar.”  – Simone Konu-Rae and Lydia Garnett, Stage 1 Tutors

The Reset Show is technically not a public-facing event, yet it gets enough coverage to fully enmesh it in prospective students’ vision of CSM. “What I’ve realised this year, because I have taught for quite a few years, is they start planning for it before they even get here,” Sarah says. The Reset Show also serves as the opening stroke of a circle that will close with the students’ final year collection. Sarah, who sees BA Fashion students in their first and final ‘crits’, likes to remind final-year students of the work they produced so early in their studies. As Sarah muses, at the beginning “the students can be very, very brave, and often, as a result, it’s really exciting. Sometimes, when they come to the final collection, they think that they’ll be more job-worthy if they do a much more conservative collection.” This year’s show, championing not conservatism but the conservation of resources and untamed creativity, certainly declared a class who are ready to be seen.