Central Saint Martins’ annual BA Fashion show has never shied away from spectacle, but this year’s catwalk took things to a happy extreme. Without the constraints of commerciality that many working designers have to contend with, creativity is allowed to run amok, resulting in a runway bursting with big ideas and bold ways of presenting them. It’s the reason why celebs and press flock to the annual event, the reason why the outsize crowd rivals that of any London Fashion Week show – the chance to witness the new vanguard of fashion.

This year, the London university’s 40 designers left nothing off the table. The spectacle was there for all to see, with Matthew David Andrews’ romantic rendering of a 1958 flood in his home town literally leaving the runway sopping; or Mason Tomsett towing the line between masculine satire (giant ‘BUM BOY’ underwear) and aching beauty (a satin showstopper gown). Elsewhere, Andy Pomarico’s flying witch and trash-covered minions left the audience cackling, Izzy Dickens explored left-field materials in unexpected forms, while Hannah Smith urged us to see the fashion system through a disabled person’s eyes.

For all those and more, scroll through our list of the 12 must-see collections below.

: Bristol.

: My collection discusses my upbringing in Thanet, where I moved away from when I was 10, and the things that were left behind. The area has changed a lot, so I wanted to capture its memory. I used some of mine and my dad’s drawings as references and collected objects that washed ashore. 

: Very chaotic – I am developing constantly. The initial proposal of my collection looks nothing like the final outcome because I am always adding new things and editing. 

: The coat was a challenging one to make; the foam ripped really easily, so it had to be completely backed in fabric.

: Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, UK.

: Visually, my collection is a celebration of the often dual organic and mechanical nature of disabled identity. I use wrought iron gates as a motif symbolic of security and restriction, and manipulate them through textile techniques to find harmony between hard and soft.

: Designing with disability in mind has become intrinsic to my practice. Growing up alongside my brother, who has neurofibromatosis type 2, I see how inaccessible and ignorant the world is. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Visibility and representation are so important, and my intention is to bring this into the artistic and artisanal side of fashion. There is so much creative potential in seeing medical aids as extensions of the body that deserve to be fashioned with the same sensitivity.

: I’m half-Welsh and half-Bengali, born and raised in Wrexham, North Wales.

: Central to this collection is the hijra identity, so gender-nonconforming and trans people, like me, from South Asia. But of course, that expands to my community here in London.

My work explores the tensions between my mixed-raced identity, as someone shaped by the oppressor and the oppressed. My collection blends British and European-inspired couture elements with South Asian and hijra cultural symbols, contrasting elitist fashion with a marginalised community.

: I often gravitate towards the extremes of solid structural materials like leather contrasted with the lightness of a mesh. It’s an attempt to find a sort of balance of what I find feminine or masculine, and how that can make someone feel.

: My muses are naturally the fierce Bengali women I grew up around like my mother, as well as the queer friends and family I have. I also think it’s important to be inspired by people with integrity, which could be anyone in the world. Some standouts who I look up to are the likes of Björk, Octavia St. Laurent and Grace Jones.

: Hudson Valley, New York.

: My final collection comes from my perspective of feeling like an outsider due to my autism and queerness. My work isn’t concerned with being in good taste or well-behaved. My artistic practice focuses on exploring the humour that can arise from discomfort, abjection and humiliation – how a lack of understanding towards the awkward, the obscure or the unknown can create these uncomfortable silences, often reconciled with laughter.

: During my studies, I realised I am far more passionate about fine art than fashion. I wanted to continue my fine art practice and make large sculptures that overpowered and engulfed the models wearing them. The project is more of a satirical parade than a catwalk; it is very performative and theatrical.

: I constructed the internal structures of the sculptures out of wood and scaffolding pipes, and I built everything myself in my apartment. I’ve been collecting objects and materials from charity shops, scrap stores, flea markets and the streets for years now and have utilised all that in the project. I like working with discarded items and things deemed as ugly, giving them a space to be appreciated and admired.

: Beijing, China.

: Myself, young delivery drivers and livestreamers. They’re everywhere but often feel invisible in a deeper way, both socially and emotionally. I wanted to express that feeling through materials that blur the line between seen and unseen.

: I love using unconventional materials and playful, interactive elements to express what I’m thinking. My work is about turning ideas or emotions into something you can actually wear, and overall just having fun.

: It was a big challenge – this kind of tech isn’t something I’ve worked with before, so I had to learn a lot along the way. I did loads of testing to make sure the screens were wearable, safe, and stable, and figured out things like power supply and syncing the feed. My friend Lexin, who knows more about tech, helped me during the process. We solved a lot together.

: Wickford, Essex.

: Initially inspired by photographs of a real flood that occurred in my home town of Wickford in 1958, I wanted to use this devastating event as a metaphor for my struggles growing up as a queer child, drowning in the fear of revealing my true self.

On the runway, a spectacle occurs. As the models walk, water begins to rain from the brim of their hats. Hitting the garments, a specially engineered water soluble textile begins to ‘disappear’, tearing apart and revealing a colour, print or embroidery underneath – revealing the real Matthew.

: My practice is perhaps more unconventional than the usual ‘sketches, making to final garments’ approach that is the most commonly accepted way of working in fashion. I love to use styling as a tool to design, working and draping in 3D in order to explore shape and cut. Also colour and prints drive my ideas even before I conceive the collection in my mind.

: I absolutely adore Moschino, the humour, satire and theatrics have always inspired me so much. I think, as my work is very maximalist, I have a massive appreciation for the likes of John Galliano, Jeremy Scott and Marc Jacobs. Similar to them, I absolutely love using whimsy in my work to communicate a universal message and reach beyond the fashion system.

: Born and raised in southeast London (Catford) to Ghanaian parents.

: The connection between Europe and West Africa, focusing on the cultural exchanges between Britain and Ghana. This came about after discovering Stockfish, a Norwegian delicacy, is deeply valued in West Africa and is used throughout West African food. Discovering this made me question what other traditionally European goods and customs have found their way to West Africa, inadvertently becoming Imported Traditions.

: Imperfections are key in my work. I love to play around with textures and prints and subvert traditional ways of knitting and garment construction. In this collection, there are a lot of raw edges and exposed seams, which add texture and give more of an organic feel.

: Paloma Elsesser and Tracee Ellis Ross. I’m a big fan of their personal style, and I like how they both play around with a variety of silhouettes, prints and textures.

: A wee town called Dunoon, in the West of Scotland!

: The collection was inspired by the queer experience of navigating masculinity, especially exploring the ways clothing has been used to suppress, disguise and eventually liberate identity. Drawing from key childhood memories in Scotland of locker rooms, street uniforms, suits, football kits and kilts, I wanted to reimagine these traditionally masculine symbols through a queer lens. Influenced by queer theory and camp aesthetics, I wanted to reclaim shame and stereotypes with irony, humour, and a bold celebration of queer visibility and joy.

: My practice is fun, confronting and subversive. It’s a queer reimagining of menswear that subverts tradition with sensuality and storytelling, in the pursuit of transformative resistance.

Mason Tomsett: The straightest most heteronormative guy on earth, of course! No, really, whoever wants to, or more importantly, needs to! It’s about the embrace and protection it unapologetically demands, stamping out this casual queerphobia that still reeks everywhere. But I guess the thought of someone like Brad Pitt wearing them seems a bit far off, so let’s say Lil Nas X or Troye Sivan?

Where are you from?

Luke Hemingway: Bolton.

What was the inspiration for your collection?

Luke Hemingway: Dream Ceremony explores the collapse of Northern subculture, drawing on folklore, forgotten spaces, and the eerie performance of identity. It’s about lads stuck between myth and mundanity – caught in ceremonial loops of nostalgia, class performance and digital fakery.

What’s unique about the way you work?

Luke Hemingway: I make clothes that start and end with my mates – they’re designed with and for them. My work blends fashion, film, and storytelling to explore regional identity, performance, and the tension between authenticity and artifice. It’s funny, but it’s never a joke :P

What do you think menswear is missing right now?

Luke Hemingway: Humour and regional specificity. Menswear is either serious or hollow, and brands may make clothes locally but they rarely speak for that place. The biggest brand from Bolton now is Represent. Their clothes have that Fear of God-esque LA style – but why? Bolton isn’t LA!

Where are you from?

Sam Fisher: Peckham, London.

What was the inspiration for your collection?

Sam Fisher: No Drink On The Dancefloor is a reflection on my personal connection to dance and the profound role it played in shaping me as a young man. Inspired by Northern Soul nights and my foundations in contemporary dance, the project delves into themes of physical expression, vulnerability, and liberation. I’m particularly drawn to how these nights gave young men permission to occupy space and move freely, without restraint. This spirit deeply informs my design approach, where I explore how contemporary dance can shape and transform garments, creating pieces that respond to movement, shifting and distorting with the body’s rhythm.

How would you describe your practice?

Sam Fisher: The body is what ties fashion and dance together. Having a moving canvas creates these beautiful snapshot moments, which I want to preserve. I focus on ways to achieve this preservation, whether through tailoring techniques, or textile developments such as chalk, wax and plaster experiments. I think, fundamentally, I wanted to capture a mood I’ve personally experienced.

Why did you want to incorporate dance into your presentation?

Sam Fisher: I wanted the audience to feel the energy of a booming soul night, and having dancers on the runway brought that experience to life.

Where are you from?

Zainab Mansary: Sierra Leone, via the Netherlands.

What is the inspiration for your collection? 

Zainab Mansary: The vivid conversations and images I gathered during my first visit to Sierra Leone. They allowed me to connect with the young boy and girl my parents once were, growing up between the bustling streets of Freetown. My collection explores the impact of migration on my parents in the late 90s as they left their homes in Sierra Leone due to the civil war. While following the blue waters, my mother and father disguised themselves in streetwear’s finest puffer jackets and denim pieces. My collection addressed the effects of Black men’s mental health, due to the conflict of identity during migration. 

How would you describe your practice? 

Zainab Mansary: My journey never starts in a sketchbook or on a mannequin. It’s the conversations with people like my mother and my family in Sierra Leone which stimulate what I want to say in my work. 

What did you hope to reflect in the casting for your collection? 

Where are you from?

Yuura Asano: I was born in New York but grew up in LA until the age of 14, before moving to Tokyo during my high school years. 

How would you describe your practice?

Yuura Asano: I always start with painting, usually illustrating a scene that feels like a snapshot of the narrative or theme I’m working with. That painting becomes the starting point for developing prints, and from there I dive into research – flipping through magazines and books, collecting images that help shape the world I’m building. While the prints come from a more story-driven place, the way I cut and construct garments is rooted in the real world. I reference classic womenswear, look at vintage pieces, dig through my own wardrobe, and spend time on eBay hunting for garment details that help bring the illustration to life.

What was the inspiration for your collection?

Yuura Asano: A key inspiration for this work is Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher, an examination of the psychological challenges girls face as they enter puberty. Historically, women have been cast as nurturers, supporters, adjuncts to greatness rather than its embodiment. I wanted to reimagine womanhood as a vision seen through the eyes of our younger selves, before doubt set in. To bring this vision to life, I drew from archetypes of women’s clothing throughout history. The collection references silhouettes and garments that have defined womanhood in different eras: the dropped waistlines of the 1920s, evoking the flappers’ spirit of rebellion and freedom; the tailored twinsets of the 1950s and 60s, symbols of the professional woman. Each reference is reinterpreted through the lens of girlhood imagination.

This is womanhood not as it is, but as we once dreamed it could be.

Who are your fashion icons? 

Yuura Asano: Growing up, I think I always enjoyed dressing up, but I didn’t really become aware of the fashion world until a bit later. I remember my mom showing me Tavi Gevinson, and for a while, I tried to copy her blog by putting together outfits that were probably not nearly as cool and definitely way too overstyled compared to hers. As I got older, though, my inspiration started to come more from my mom and my grandmother. And I think, now and probably forever, my ultimate fashion icon is Miuccia Prada.