A Student's Italian Affair

Inspired by Italian 60s cinema, the winning look by Rafael Cunha who was inspired by the work of Ernest Trova

Susie first mentioned how second year Central Saint Martins menswear fashion students were recently asked to combine British tailoring and Italian fabrics to make one outfit inspired by 1960s' Italian cinema last week and I've been waiting for the images to share with you. ever since. Thankfully the wait is over because this was some design brief and the resulting looks are truly something. I have spent many an afternoon transfixed on the style and beauty shown during this golden era of Italian cinema and it is always great to see some emerging menswear design talent.

Razor sharp tailoring by runner up Lisandro Olmos

What started out as a sourcing trip for Christopher New (the CSM menswear tutor) thankfully ended up as an interesting brief for the second year menswear students on the CSM Fashion BA course. New, was invited by the Italian Trade Commission to visit the factories of some major Italian cloth manufacturers and this resulted in the brief to design and produce a look based on tailoring and inspired by 60s Italian cinema. For the second year students it was an opportunity to work with luxury fabrics, most for the first time.

A modern interpretation. So Huang's take of 60's cinema

Italian suits of the 1960’s set new standards for tailoring and the students were asked to watch seminal films of the era for inspiration including Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8 1/2 (1963), Visconti's Rocco and his Brothers and Antonini's L’avventura. The result is some exciting looks which break new ground creatively for the I.C.E. whilst introducing future designers to the benefits of these luxurious cloths (not to mention us).

My favourite entry by Daisuke Suzuki

The looks were presented last Thursday at CSM's Southampton Row base and three students were awarded prizes by a judging panel which included Francesca Serafine (Deputy Directory of the ITC), Andrew Davis (former editor of Arena) and Christopher New. Hampus Beggren and Pavel An were runners up whilst Rafael Cunha was declared the winner. The winning look was inspired by priests and the code behind how they dress, from this point, Cunha had to develop a character and decided to tell the favoured story of 60s Italian cinema; the story of a man who finds himself questioning his beliefs.

A full article including interviews with the students can be read on DazedDigital.