Bally loves Central Saint Martins

by Elizabeth Marchetti

It seems like high-fashion brands never get enough of Central Saint Martins’ fashion students.

So it came as no surprise that Swiss brand Bally, renowned for its luscious leather, asked a group of students from the MA Fashion Design Course to submit women’s shoe designs for them.

Out of the fifteen finalists chosen by MA course director Louise Wilson, five talented and lucky students won a trip to Italy and Switzerland to complete their designs with a team of experts, before presenting them today in a lavish room at Brown’s Hotel in Green Park.

These are William Hendry; Estefania Cortes Harker, Frida Hofslagare, Charles Youssef and Stephanie Turner.

Mouth-watering

I cannot deny that the shoes on display are ridiculously mouth-watering.

In monochrome pastel tones of pink, grey and black, they are constructed in suede and leather and look exquisitely elegant, with an ergonomically curvy shape and human-friendly heels: thick at the base, of reasonable height.

The collection looks professional, exclusive and very wearable.

I instantly have my eye on a pair of platform heeled beige suede ankle boots with inside zippers, but I also spot plexi-glass heels mixed to black leather and another pair in cotton candy hue which would make Marie-Antoniette very happy.

The shoes combine style with comfort.

Fashion first

Here we are served tea, croissants and sandwiches.

Professor of the MA Fashion course Louise Wilson is in her all-black ensemble, and keen to avoid talks on the university, while focusing on fashion instead.

No wonder, as she is a force to be reckoned, achieving an OBE for services to the fashion industry and education.

Surprisingly, she hasn’t attended many shows other than the MA graduates one she runs.

How was the mood after the loss of McQueen? "I would’ve thought that anyone that knew Lee was very upset by it.”

On subject of her successful students, Wilson isn’t keen on dropping names: “I think that anybody that makes it to the show, I’m particularly pleased with.

"There are outstanding women’s and men’s collections, knits and textiles. I don’t usually name students, because I think it’s self-evident by their work.”

Any other designers she is keen on? “I would never answer that. Not because you are Uni of the Arts’ paper, I am always asked that but I’m not the kind of person to be into anything, not even S&M!

"So I’m not going to start naming designers. To me, it’s got no relevance to what I do. I work on people’s work to make it better, so it’s got nothing to do with my personal life.

"Because then all you have is students, who are naïve enough to assume that if you do work like that, they’ll be liked. But it’s all completely twisted.”

'Incredibly professional'

She does spare some thought on this collection with Bally though: “As you can see, this event is incredibly professional. A lot of time, when students’ projects are done you get an outcome that is not as good as this.

"What was great is that the students went to factories in Italy and Switzerland so they had a real live experience. A lot of time, in sponsored projects, they don’t get to travel. And I like doing projects that are professional in real life. As you can see the outcome is fantastic, brilliant quality.

"I chose students by their work: good design. We don’t go by personality, or looks, it’s just good design. And if the next question is ‘how do you choose good design?’ well that’s part of my big bug with the university.

"Good design is in the eye of the beholder and unfortunately you can’t write it down as a learning outcome. It’s my view, which hopefully means I’m irreplaceable.”

Burberry

She doesn’t give much thought to Burberry hosting the show at Chelsea College of Art.

She says: “ I’m not being difficult…it wouldn’t even enter my head to think about it!

"I know they have offered tickets to the students, in fact I binned the email because you’d have to presume I’m thinking that but I’m not. I’m putting together a show on at LFW with 220 looks.

"Point is, I can’t imagine anybody thinking 'Mmm..Burberry is showing at Chelsea! I suppose it’s important to the university as it happens to be a university venue, but I don’t think people in fashion think like that. What they would worry about is: is it too far to go? Will we able to get taxis home? Is it going to be raining?'

"They are the criteria.” The she adds: “Actually, It would put me off going because it’s so far away from where I live. You know, it’s true! But Somerset House is quite central.”

What’s next for the MA show? “Keep going! Keep doing well and not spend too long promoting it. I think if you can get students to produce good work, it will do the publicizing.

"Education, as industry, is spending far too much time on publicizing and far too little time on producing creative thought provoking work. There’s a lot of courses spending a lot of money on promotion.

"And I believe that good work will always work out. Maybe I’m out of date, but we managed fine years ago before PR and publicity departments and I think we’ll manage fine when they are no longer. But that’s just my personal view.”

For someone who is a fashion maverick, there must be some pleasure in doing what she does? She admits: “I wouldn’t say I love my job, but I do like enabling students.” I ask, is that what keeps her going? “Food keeps me going.” She says. “But yes, to see a student realize a high level of work, it does give you satisfaction.”