It’s widely known that the fashion industry is becoming more and more difficult to enter into as a fashion designer, and 1 Granary offers emerging talent a place to come together and showcase their work to the world.
The magazine aims to celebrate both past and present students from the institution, so not only can you read about your current faves, but you can also get a heads up about the very best of emerging talent before the rest.
The second issue called “Age of Innocence” launched at the beginning of September and showcases fashion and art from Central Saint Martins as well as interviews and photography by some of the industry’s key players, such as Christopher Kane and Nick Knight.
We wanted to find out a little bit more about this great concept, so we caught up with the editor of the second issue.
theFashionSpot: Tell us a little about the team behind the magazine.
Sara McAlpine: We’re not a traditional team, as such…the beauty of the magazine is that we can approach anyone from the university, past and present, to contribute, emerging or established. We’re all Central Saint Martins students and graduates, but we all come from different pathways. Some, like our founder and Editor-in-Chief Olya Kuryshchuk, studied fashion design and marketing, others studied fashion communication and promotion and I study fashion history and theory. But graphic design, fine art, textiles students — all sorts contributed to this issue. That’s the great thing about working on 1 Granary, it’s a chance for all of us from different academic backgrounds to get together and do something we otherwise couldn’t.
tFS: What inspired the creation of the magazine?
SM: It started as a website, a blog, back in 2012 when Olya figured that we needed a platform to spotlight what was going on inside the college. The huge list of successful alumni has meant that people are pretty intrigued as to what goes on inside CSM. 1 Granary, the magazine and website, shows them what went on, what’s going on and gives them a pretty a good idea of what’s coming.
Image: Laurence Ellis
tFS: What’s been the biggest challenge?
SM: Money — as always. But we’ve been incredibly fortunate with the amount of industry support that we’ve had with this issue. People like Nick Knight and Simon Foxton working together to shoot the last MA graduates’ collections, and people like Christopher Kane and Antonio Berardi agreeing to feature with no strings attached. It’s not just agreeing to feature, either, it’s the fact that they also took the time to talk to us and treat us like professionals. That kind of support is invaluable.
tFS: What’s the theme of the latest issue?
SM: We called this issue “Age of Innocence” because it describes the time that we’re in. You can afford to be a little naive when you’re still a student, which has actually proved beneficial for us with Issue 2. We might not have approached half of the hugely successful people featured in this issue if we’d gone to them entirely straight-laced and formal. We didn’t hide the fact that we wanted to feature them because we absolutely love their work. They should change that old adage: Innocence is bliss!
tFS: Who’s been your favourite person to feature so far?
SM: Could you choose between Christopher Kane, Simon Foxton, Katie Grand, Robin Derrick, Lee Swillingham, Hamish Bowles, Ai Weiwei, Craig Green and every one of our current students, graduates and friends? Who could pick one out of that lineup?
tFS: Who would you love to feature?
SM: Phoebe Philo. We’ve heard she knows a thing or two about dancing — we want a playlist. And M.I.A.
Image: Nick Knight
tFS: What are your plans for the magazine’s future?
SM: That hopefully it’ll be easier to do the third! It wasn’t easy talking some of the people we featured on board purely for the fact that they’re so busy, and giving your time to a student-run magazine can be a hard sell. But we got Christopher Kane, Nick Knight, Hamish Bowles and so many other great people. Hopefully having featured them, things will run a little smoother. The magazine is just a small part of what 1 Granary does, though. We’ve hosted exhibitions, working with both artists and designers, we’ve hosted live events in conversation with Olivier Theyskens and writer Colin McDowell. We also have the website, which we’re working on redeveloping. The plan is to build on all of those things.
tFS: Who would you choose as the biggest success story to come from Central Saint Martins?
SM: It’s impossible to name just one, and that’s just regarding the designers. When you throw stylists, artists and creative directors into the mix, it’s even harder. That’s the brilliant thing about both the college and our magazine: We’ve got an endless list of incredible creatives that we could feature. What you’ve seen in Issue 1 and 2 is just the tip of the iceberg.
tFS: Who are you most looking forward to seeing at London Fashion Week?
SM: That’s tough — the London schedule’s rammed with designers doing things we love. But to name three? Marques Almeida, Faustine Steinmetz and our Issue 2 cover star Christopher Kane.
You can purchase your own copy of the current issue here!
