Central Saint Martins MA Fashion 2025 – Part 144 Images
Like many of us right now, Petra Fagerstrom’s mind is on the global shift to right-wing politics. The Swedish designer, who took home the coveted L’Oreal Prize at Central Saint Martins’ MA Fashion show this year, points to the wild rise of conservative influencers like Nara Smith, and the ‘trad wife’ and ‘clean girl’ trends that have swept social media, and asks “How did we get here?” It’s something she seeks to explore in her graduate collection, which imagines how AI might explain the weirdo times we’re living through 50 years in the future, and draws inspiration from Kazou Ishiguro’s novel Klara and The Sun – a moving story in which an android learns all about the world.
Central Saint Martins MA Fashion 2025 – Part 245 Images
Also citing movies like Safe, The Stepford Wives, and The Mirror as jumping-off points, there’s something inherently uncanny about the offering. Spending the past few years perfecting a pleating technique which gives garments a lenticular appearance, Fagerstrom hones in on two garments closely associated with conservative aesthetics: Dior’s iconic Bar Jacket, with its nipped waist and neat shoulders, and Chanel’s boxy bouclé number. In Fagerstom’s hands, the prim Bar jacket becomes an optical illusion that shifts as the model walks, exposing flashes of naked breast and to the rear the outline of a thong as the folds undulate and open. Meanwhile, all is not quite right with the Chanel-inspired piece, with the designer revealing she fed the style through AI software and had it print the pattern, but though the kit is developing fast, it didn’t quite grasp it so panels are skewed and seams skew-whiff.
The standard of CSM’s MA collections is always high, but Fagerstrom’s finale feels truly special, and in an age when fashion continues to play it safe in a bid to send things flying off the shelves, that she has such a strong message feels all the more pertinent. Despite riffing on such revered garments – the kind of pieces that have become widely known markers even beyond fashion – it also felt really new. Which is good, since the whole offering and the techniques used within it got off the ground because of Fagerstrom’s disdain for the rampant nostalgia holding the industry in its clutches.
As she comes down from her L’Oreal win and sets her sights on what comes after graduation, get to know her better below.
Hey Petra! So first, let’s go back to the start. How did you even end up wanting to study fashion?
Petra Fagerstrom: I did figure skating growing up and the highlight each season was – of course – picking the fabric and making the dress. But I think the real interest in fashion came when I was around 15. I was quite self-conscious and insecure – but I guess, who wasn’t as a teenager – so when I discovered how clothes could change how I felt and especially how I was perceived I got very obsessed. There wasn’t really any fashion around me so I did most of my research on Tumblr. I remember discovering Nicolas Ghesquière after his last Balenciaga collection and I think that was what made me decide that fashion was what I wanted to do. After that I started taking evening sewing and illustration classes and I haven’t really looked back since.
What was the concept behind your final MA collection?
Petra Fagerstrom: In Recollection//404, I explore the fragility of memory in an age shaped by technological interference, imagining how AI might misremember the present. By creating a false memory, I give myself the opportunity to react to and comment on current issues. This concept initially came from my frustration with the paradoxal obsession with nostalgia in the fashion industry.
When considering how the present might be recalled in the future, I focus on the resurgence of conservative values within my generation. One way this has manifested is the rise of the ‘trad wife’ movement. In response, I looked at representations of the traditional wife in different eras. I especially focused on Dior and Chanel – designers whose legacy still informs the aesthetics of conservative dress today. By introducing glitches inspired by failed AI attempts I aimed to disrupt the rigidity and attitudes of the garments. Through these ‘glitches’ I want to create a woman who fractures the ideals of purity, passivity, and cleanliness tied to the image of a ‘traditional wife’.
Some pretty interesting techniques went into bringing it to life. Could you talk us through some of them?
Petra Fagerstrom: The key textile development in the collection is lenticular pleating. Through this I’ve been able to bring animation onto fabric. The animation creates the effect of a ‘vanishing jacket’ and running legs on a skirt. I created the prints using the CLO-3D avatar (a digital software for garment simulation and pattern cutting) to further the idea of the hyper-digitalisation of fashion.
The aim of the pleated garments is to emphasise the feeling of a memory or dream by distortion of pace – the legs appear to be running while the wearer is walking. The disappearing garments refer to how shame often manifests in dreams – suddenly being publicly nude. Shame is a feeling strongly connected to purity culture and the subject I am addressing so I wanted to integrate it in a way that makes the woman I’m representing feel shameless.
That Dior-y Bar Jacket and the little Chanel-esque one were real standouts. Talk us through them.
Petra Fagerstrom: In my first look I have a jacket which I have constructed as a Dior bar jacket but it’s covered in lenticular pleats shifting from a scan of one of my houndstooth fabrics to the naked CLO-3D avatar. The idea is that it’s a jacket that ‘vanishes’ or goes transparent. This is the only garment where I have stayed true to the original reference shape and instead created the glitch/distortion through just the textile.
The tweed jacket is inspired by how AI tends to merge things quite illogical as it doesn’t understand how garments work, yet the renderings look like real garments. I tried to replicate this way of merging garments to distort the silhouette of my reference to give the jacket a new attitude – it has a part of the same structure as the first Bar jacket inside, but then the silhouette gets completely distorted.
You interned at Balenciaga and Acne. What did you learn there?
Petra Fagerstrom: I think the main thing I learned was product. Understanding what details a good product needs and understanding durable finishings for long-term wear etc. It was also very useful to understand how every step of the process works and see what is needed for production. We don’t really learn these things in school.
How do you feel about fashion as a whole right now?
Petra Fagerstrom: I’ve been quite frustrated with how stagnant it feels despite everything moving extremely fast and creative directors being moved around every five minutes. It seems like we’re stuck in a nostalgic loop referencing the same things over and over. Of course, there are a lot of people doing amazing and radical things, but as a whole it almost feels like fashion has become standardised. However, I’m not too worried it’s going to be like this forever – there’s too many incredibly talented people with drive and strong visions around me for it to never change.
How do you feel about leaving CSM?
Petra Fagerstrom: I am really sad to leave. I am painfully aware of what a huge privilege it has been to be here. I’ve really tried making the most of it. I am excited for the next chapter but I will miss the people I’ve had around me a lot.
What star sign are you? Are you typical of that?
Petra Fagerstrom: I’m a Pisces, and I really am. I’m quite a daydreamer and spend a lot of time in my own bubble which I believe is quite a Pisces trait.
What did you listen to while creating your collection?
Petra Fagerstrom: 070 Shake released Petrichor in a very timely manner so have been listening to that a lot while making. There’s also been quite a lot of Fever Ray. Some days I just need to listen to something ambient as well, so then I usually play Brian Eno.
