Central Saint Martins & Fashion East: The Last Graduation

Yesterday 'was all about Louise' - so posted Susie Bubble below a Wolfgang Tilmans photograph of Louise Wilson's desk. And she was right.

At 11am on Day One of London Fashion Week, Alber Elbaz spoke atthe memorial servicethat reflected upon the late, great, Central Saint Martins professor's illustrious life and career.

By the evening, her last graduates showcased their collections at the Central Saint Martins MA show, whilst two of their recent predecessors appeared on Lulu Kennedy's Fashion East stage. The day, as the entire LFW often tends to be, was significantly touched by the influential teacher.

Fashion East was a diverse feast of true London tribes. Usually a triple collection catwalk show, this season's showcase took an alternative route. Whilst upstairs at the ICA, newbies Caitlin Price (her ghetto girls wore cow slicks, silk track suits, trainers and skimpy-to-oversized prom dresses) and Mary Benson (her ultra glam boy-girl-disco-clan encloaked in hot pink jersey and belted chokers wouldn't have looked out of place in '90s Dalston) held presentations of strikingly contrasting motley crews, second timer Ed Marler's collection was a catwalk performance full of camp British TV characters, DelBoy shearlings and pearly kings and queens.

Between Benson's vomiting Bambi print, peeks of Price's satin thongs and Marler's twirling ladies in fake gold jewellery and deconstructed sweat pants, Fashion East was a celebration of outlandish creativity with a touch of grime - exactly what, often with Wilson's help, London has become know for.

Outlandish creativity was abundant at Central Saint Martins too - naturally. Knitwear students took mixed media to the next level.

Matty Bovan (the evening's joint winner of the L'Oreal Professionel Creative Award) presented dresses dripping in glittering fringe, and girls caught in rainbow coloured fishnets.

Hayley Grundmann presented building site Big Bird jackets of woven foam and plastic bin bags.

Menswear graduates Ben Rice and Erik Litzen both clung to common themes of utilitarianism meets the New Romantics, whilst Maximilian Riedlberger and Charles Jeffrey presented high-fashion painters (Bohemia is dead it would seem) as Riedlberger showed futuristically sculpted painting smocks whilst Jeffrey's sci-if shapes and dad jeans were Pollock-ed with paint splatters (with ladies' tights hoisted up beneath them).

Xinyuan Xu stood out in the womenswear category with her pastel-veiled Pac Man ghost girls wearing foam cactuses in multiple forms.

The other winner of the night, Beth Postle - who designed Textiles For Fashion - provided a plastic revolution of graphic printed vinyl capes and a shock of vibrant colour in a show that teamed with softer, blended palettes.

With the collections walking side by side for the finale, the diversity on offer stood out in fantastic relief. Along with the lion's share of the LFW schedule (Wilson taught Christopher Kane, Ashish, Jonathan Saunders, Mary Katrantzou and Simone Rocha) CSM's riot of artistry, and progressive, boundary-pushing fashion was a poignant reminder of the legacy that Louise Wilson has left behind. And long may it reign.

See more of the collections in the gallery below >>

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