Hong Kong’s Izzue gives Central Saint Martins fashion graduates a shop window in China
Fashion MA students’ prize for winning a contest is a trip to China to design a mini-collection for store chain; their journey is one that growing numbers of Chinese fashion students are making in reverse, as applications to famed London college rise
Every year the highly rated Master of Arts course in fashion at the world’s best-known design college is bombarded with applications from would-be students from around the world – including more than 400 from China.
Unlike in the past, most of the hopeful Chinese students submitting their résumés meet the academic, creative and linguistic requirements of Central Saint Martins in London, but the majority are turned down, to maintain a balance of nationalities on the hugely oversubscribed course.
Course director Fabio Piras has witnessed the striking improvement in the standard of applications from China, and taken satisfaction in seeing graduates make their mark in the brutally competitive real world.
The two who have shone the brightest after leaving the college are Masha Ma, who now has studios in Shanghai and Paris, and Huishan Zhang, whose Qingdao-made garments are sold in some of the world’s finest department stores, and from his boutique in an exclusive district of central London.
“The applications from China are enormous,” says Piras, who is Italian. “We get hundreds and hundreds; we could feed 10 MA fashion courses with Chinese students but you can’t because you have to have diversity within the community.
