CSM x the Design Museum Study Session

Based in York, award-winning designer Matty graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2015 with an MA in Fashion Knitwear. His 12-look graduate collection opened the final show, earning the L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award and the LVMH Graduate Prize, and led to work with Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu. His devoted following includes Naomi Campbell, Björk and Zendaya. Matty Bovan Studio champions sustainability through local craft, hand-dyed yarns and low-impact production.

Known for her part in the New Romantic cultural club movement, Julia was a regular devotee of the Blitz Club from the very beginning. Her look – including a beehive and heavy eyeliner – has become synonymous with the Blitz scene of 1978, and influences catwalks to this day. Taking up DJing in the mid-80s, Julia continues this work as part of a countercultural lifestyle that blends the arts, fashion and music.

Darla-Jane is a British academic, fashion and footwear designer, author, futurologist, and Founder of the Global Future Footwear Coalition. Through her consultancy practice, she advises brands on emerging cultural and social trends and their impact on products, materials and consumer behaviour. A CSM graduate, she launched an internationally stocked label and has exhibited at the V&A, ICA and Design Museum. She is Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange at CSM, UAL, and Reader in Fashion Enterprise.

Franceska is a London-based fashion designer passionate about circular and sustainable fashion, working with reworked vintage clothing and antique textiles. Through FLK Atelier, she champions a repair culture, offering specialist tailoring, alterations, repairs and curated vintage via FLK Vintage. A CSM graduate, she was a Blitz Kid who showed at London Fashion Week, ran a Kensington Market store, influenced 80s tailoring, and later held senior design roles at Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, NY&Co and Myla London.

Maximilian is a British designer known for theatrical, narrative-driven fashion blending historical drama with modern craft. Featured on the covers of magazines such as Perfect and Glamour, the Central Saint Martins graduate has dressed stars including Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan, Rita Ora, and Teyana Taylor. His accolades include the Drapers 30 Under 30 and winning both the ITS contest Italy and the UK Circular Design Challenge.

Danielle is senior curator at the Design Museum, where she has curated ‘Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s’ as well as ‘Barbie: the Exhibition’. Her background spans a range of interests, from contemporary craft (which she led while a curator at the London Museum) to 18th century sculpture and print culture.

Iain is a writer, curator and Professor of Fashion & Design at Kingston School of Art. He studied Fashion Design at St Martin’s School of Art (1977-1980). Fashion editor of BLITZ, London Evening Standard, The Times and Elle. Curatorial projects include ICA, Somerset House, Fashion Museum, Bath and V&A Dundee.

A major exhibition on the legendary Blitz club night that transformed 1980s London style, and generated a creative scene that had an enormous impact on popular culture in the decade that followed — from fashion and music, to film, art and design.