In January 2017, MA Fashion at Central St Martins commissioned acclaimed British photographer Anna Fox to document the building of the final year collections. Over a two-month period, Fox engaged in fieldwork that reveals the process of fashion design at close quarters; in its purest, almost abstract form. Blink takes us from first fittings to line-up; from Granary Building in King’s Cross to London Fashion Week at 180 Strand.
“I witnessed the trials, tribulations and sheer frenetic bliss of the last few weeks before the students left university – I love being a photographer for times like these. For the first few hours I was on trial. Then, once accepted as part of the scene, I felt as if I had been swept into a mad, punk, rude mechanical ballet of cutting and pinning, sewing and swishing.”
Working with both large format and digital cameras as well as high spec new technology sponsored by Google and a lighting crew Fox installed herself in the MA workshops witnessing the stresses and strains and creativity of the department right up to the final climatic end. The work compromises a series of large scale colour photographs and has also been published as a monograph.