STUDENT START, BESPOKE FINISH

Central St Martins is the coolest, most cutting edge design and art college on the planet. That’s what its students think, anyway, and many others too.

So when plans were announced some years back that this hive of laid-back originality was to be moved from its Soho venue to the wasteland of Kings Cross, there was incredulity and no little protest.

Fast forward to one rainy night this Autumn, when with the support of tailor Timothy Everest and textile names Fox and Holland & Sherry, a reception was held in the new Central St Martin hq. A former granary store, this big old building has been part of the wholesale redevelopment of an area until recently known for sleeze, drugs and no rock’n roll, and now provides a stunning modern centre for the students.

Built in 1851 to store London’s grain, this huge warehouse has benefited from the talents of architects Stanton Williams, who won this year’s Major Building of the Year Award for their transformation of  the site.

Just behind King Cross Station, its forecourt of fountains was perhaps somewhat de trop given the deluge from the heavens on the night in question, but the whole place has a sense of space and grandeur. It is the kingpin in a series of derelict buildings that have been redeveloped for the campus, accomodating some 4,000 students, who are dwarfed by the proportions.

Fitting easily into one of the rooms were dozens and dozens of hand looms, an amazing collection of old machines, used by students for a weaving project. Devised to offer budding textile designers the chance to see their designs realised from the drawing board to the mill, and then to the finished garment, this project reflected the increasing numbers of applicants for the College’s textile course.

“Textiles are at the heart of every fashion design,” said Timothy Everest, “ and especially in bespoke tailoring, where a customer chooses the fabric as a starting point. It is so inspiring to see that there are still wonderfully talented textile designers coming out of Britain and rejuvenating our rich history in textiles, and the  high standard  is a testatment to the college’s dedication.”

Students were able to create their designs on the looms. No amount of computer generated images can replace the fabric in the flesh, so to speak, and some have become so enamoured of the hand loom process that they hope to continue using it in future careers.

Their end results were then put into commercial form by Fox Bros, famous old West Country mill, noted for its flannels, and Clissold, part of the Holland & Sherry empire. The designs were perhaps tweaked just a little by the professionals but the strong use of colour and vivid patterns remained, as can be seen in these garments made up by Timothy Everest.

At top, the back detail of the jacket seen on the Home page, with a quilted yellow melton undercollar, three button fastening and self elbow patches. The cloth was designed by Yangzi Wang and woven by Fox Bros. In the threesome, the check suit has a long line jacket, three button, again with a yellow under collar, the fabric designed by Jane Brooke and woven by Clissold. The pea coat is in a small close check fabric designed by Jane Brooke woven by Fox. And she also designed the cloth for the zipper jacket, again from

Fox. Irina Kkhadzhyshvili designed the cloth for the brown suit above, woven by Clissold. This variegated strong stripe is used by Everest in a show-one, button-two suit jacket, and illustrates how effective a horizontal stripe can be. Some of the hand looms in the background above.