SKETCHBOOKS FROM 6 CSM RESET SHOW COLLECTIONS

Isabella Nouril, Womenswear

My Reset Show look explores the psychological effects of prolonged exposure to the colour white. Research revealed that extended immersion in white environments can cause perceptual distortion, delusion, and vivid hallucinations. These effects stem from extreme sensory deprivation, which forces the mind to overcompensate, warping one’s perception of reality.

The swirling, rounded textures of the skirt represent how sensory deprivation can become overwhelming and all-consuming. The garment was designed to feel restrictive and unfamiliar, reflecting these psychological states. The dramatic silhouette of the skirt and oversized sleeves was developed by tracing and combining various organic shapes from my sketchbook, then experimenting with their placement on the body.

To create the texture, I manipulated damp tablecloth fabric around broomsticks and allowed it to set in place, producing curled forms with pleated crease details. The exaggerated volume of the skirt and sleeves is contrasted with a sleek, minimal top that accentuates the asymmetric waistline. This clean, clinical upper silhouette is intended to juxtapose the chaos, delusion, and hallucination expressed through the lower half of the look.

@isabellanouriel

Maria Medina Medina, Womenswear

An Apple a Day was inspired by White Coat Syndrome and the fear of doctors. Researching medical uniforms and patient gowns, I explored the tension between doctor and patient. Here, the paradox of the syndrome is revealed. The fear is rooted in illness, but expresses itself as wanting to keep doctors away. The garment itself explores this tension, representing, rather than actually becoming, a white doctor’s coat. This was done through an embossing technique I came up with for a fabric as heavy as the synthetic Ultrasuede. Moreover, garments show the history and development of modern medicine: from the 18th century plague masks perched on the shoulders, to the modern medical curtains veiling the piece. My parents are doctors. I hate hospitals. This project was an introspective investigation into my own relationship with medicine. Here, I created my own Anti-Doctor, a garment that instead of keeping maladies away, keeps the doctor away.

@mariamedinam

Emanuel Dawit, Fashion Design: Communication

A huge idea of this look is about the idea of layering, and things having the appearance of not fitting. In my research, I’ve always been draw to the ways people on the street, specifically how diasporic people layer and interact with their clothes. Oftentimes there’s such a bold visual clash of items being paired together that’s so unique to the path and life of the wearer.

With my look, it’s this idea of wearing two pieces of clothing at once and one not really fitting but you have to just push through it maybe sticking out at the side, or not closing at the front or making your chest look super big and bloated, out of necessity. It has this double lapel that, when the second jacket is attached, pulls it open and causes the outer lapel to naturally peel back, as well as body pieces all around the jacket having specific shaping tweaks to pull the outer jacket in, and have it stand.

A lot of the research was around how people choose to hoard items, and then anxiety around choosing to let go of something. It led me to develop this desktop print, which was how my desktop was looking with so many research images – I was drawn to the intensity of the volume of images and decided to accessorise with it.

@eualnem

Daniela Paunero-Boullosa, Fashion Design: Communication

My project, Contra Natura, is an exploration of Christianity’s construction of sin, temptation, and moral restraint. Raised within a Christian cultural framework yet never fully aligned with its values, I used this project to challenge the imposed narratives of guilt and repentance that have historically shaped Christian belief systems.

Influenced by Nietzsche’s proclamation that “God is dead,” the work rejects the notion that worthiness and salvation must be earned through self-denial, instead advocating for the acceptance of human instinct and desire. This led me to Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and Tracey Emin’s My Bed as a confrontation to the rawness of human nature when freed from moral censorship.

The skirt takes its form from the apple – an enduring symbol of original sin – reimagined bitten, rotten, discarded. The silhouette was first sculpted with paper before drafting abstract pattern pieces that would assemble like a puzzle to create the organic volume of an apple core.

For the bodice, I reflected on my own experience with religion. Candles serve as a central metaphor: light as divine guidance, and wax as society, slowly eroding and melting under that illumination. Laser cut crosses dipped in wax were embroidered on vanishing muslin with the chaotic, tangled threads at the front referencing Dionysian disorder and excess, while the structured arrangement at the back symbolises religious discipline and control.

Finally, the headpiece was inspired by Jean-Jacques Lequeu’s And We Shall be Mothers Because . . . !, an engraving critiquing the physical and ideological constraints imposed by religious institutions.

@danielapauneroboullosa

Julia Miranda, Womenswear

Through a creative design process, I explored temporary structures with a focus on natural materials for my Reset project. Looking at how protection holds strength, yet also has an impermanent life span. Represented through a selection of research, design development, 3D experimentation, and a wearable outcome. I created tangible textiles on a miniature mannequin, merging scraps of fabric with bamboo and banana leaves. Documenting this physical transition from my research collages allowed me to create shapes, textures, and visualise my designs in a larger scale. For example, using methods of fraying, creating structure with bamboo, I explored their movement possibilities. By trusting this process, my work was able to have a consistent journey. Showcasing a garment that was structural, yet foreshadowed its temporary quality.

@Juliavee_miranda

Carla Ionas, Womenswear

I started my concept looking at the theme “24 hours”, and the first thing that I thought of was the Fibonacci sequence, the idea of time and how it defines us. Our life is made of 24-hour cycles, never ending like the Fibonacci spiral. The golden ratio (spiral) is everywhere, it’s within us, just how time is, we define ourselves using time. All these overwhelming ideas made me think about how a day feels so fast but really so much happens. Inspired by Douglas Gordon, I did my own experiments into slowing down movement as a way of showing how much happens every second that we don’t realise. I researched more into the idea of 24-hour cycles and looked at the circadian rhythm, a physiological cycle we go though everyday, something that we naturally obey but we don’t know about it. In my final design. I wanted to make that cycle seen, ultimately making this cycle physical while bringing in the elements of slowing down time and movement.

@_.callyz._

Isabelle Rehm, Womenswear

Dreaming is often seen as playful – moving through different worlds, creating new dimensions. But what happens when lucid dreaming becomes a place of uncontrolled horror?  This question sits at the core of my Reset Show project. I grew up half-German and half-British, spending a significant part of my childhood in Germany. As a German, there is an inescapable sense of collective guilt attached to the past, one that is carried like a constant weight. This burden is something I feel deeply and personally, and I wanted to explore it through a more abstract lens by translating it into my dreamscape.

I dream lucidly, meaning I am aware that I am asleep and can usually control my actions within my dreams. However, when I consume news or confront the ways Germany’s past continues to impact the modern world, that control begins to dissolve. My dreams spiral into dystopian landscapes of chaos and war, where I am overwhelmed by an infinite sense of guilt. In these dreams, I encounter monstrous creatures that mutate and writhe before my closed eyes, their faces frozen in terror and rage. These figures form the foundation of my creative language. I draw from them while blending references to Dadaism and performance art. For me, garments must exist beyond functionality. Each piece is conceived as a wearable sculpture – something that can be activated through movement and used as a prop for performance. I approached this garment like a work of art designed to make people reflect on the emotion it awakens in them.

@Isabel1e_