Last week, we went down to Central Saint Martins for the 2025 graduate show, and the young, emerging creatives did not disappoint. We got to chat with graduate student Seoyoun Shin about her work, her inspirations and why she chose chairs for her final project.
What was the inspiration behind your graduate collection?
“This collection explores how the things we gather and keep shape not only our external environments but also our internal worlds. It reflects my personal history with the objects that have accompanied me, and an inquiry into how these connections mirror my own sense of self.
“When I started this project and began reflecting on how I perceive the objects I have collected, I realised that I see everything in a graphic way – like a bookshelf appearing as a checkerboard and the books within it as striped patterns within the checks. However, my focus was on how I could take simple, widely used elements, and make them feel like ‘me’. Just as I have done with the objects I have collected over time.”
What’s your favourite look from your collection?
“It’s hard to choose just one look, I love them all for different reasons. But if I had to pick, it would be the skirt from the second look. It was actually the very first design I created for the collection.
“Designing this collection was quite challenging. I felt that the objects I had collected and displayed were already perfect as they were. I kept questioning – do I really need to insert a human presence into this? Should these become clothes for people to wear?
“But as [academic] Russell W. Belk said, collecting is a form of self-extension. So, rather than focusing on the objects themselves, I tried to focus on the relationship between them and myself.
“The skirt was my first attempt at translating that idea visually. I wanted to express the look of magazines lined up on a bookshelf through graphic design. Because of that skirt, I ended up designing over 26 magazine covers.”
You experiment a lot with colours and shapes – what draws you to that?
“The things I collect – food replicas, items with dots, stripes, and tartan – tend to be colourful, so perhaps it was only natural that my work turned out that way. But, I’ve always loved using colour.
“During my first and second years, I only worked with pre-existing fabrics, so I had no real knowledge of print techniques. [In my final year], I started wondering how I could approach print in my own way. Is there a fun way to reinterpret the patterns I collect – dots, stripes, and tartan? That made me imagine what it’d be like if prints could pop out in 3D.
“This became my own interpretation of print – exploring how I can bring my favourite patterns to life in a playful, dimensional way.”
Why chairs?
“I originally designed this thinking of it as a magazine bookshelf. But, a lot of my friends said, “I really liked that chair.” It wasn’t what I intended, but I found it fun that people saw it as a chair – so I decided to let it be both: a chair and a bookshelf.
“My goal in my final year was to push beyond the things I hadn’t dared to try in my first and second years, and to expand my creative world. This bookshelf dress (the final look in my graduation collection) is one of the results of that mindset.
“Any collector would know: collecting isn’t just about gathering things – it’s also about how you store and display them. Since I collect magazines, the bookshelf that holds them naturally became a meaningful part of the concept. It felt only right that it became part of the piece.
“I designed it with a focus on how I could present my magazine pages in a beautiful way. Of course, the making of it took several months of collaboration with [fellow CSM student] Luis, who specialises in MA Furniture.”
As a new designer emerging into the fashion scene, what’s one thing about this industry that you’d like to change?
“I often think about how important it is for more people to have access to opportunities. Tuition fees keep rising, yet the ways to get financial support remain limited.
“If you’re not enrolled in a fashion school, it becomes so much harder to build the kind of connections that are often essential for working in the industry. And it just becomes more difficult to access opportunities.
“Considering that most people in the fashion industry are graduates of fashion schools, there’s a growing perception that fashion is only for those who can afford it – especially because of the high cost of education.
“If this trend continues, I worry that there will be even fewer chances for talented and diverse individuals to be seen and recognised within the industry.”
Using one word, what or where do you want to be in five years?
“Extending self (hopefully in London).”
What’s something that you want people to know about you and your work?
“The work I presented in my graduation collection is a record of the thoughts I had over the course of nearly a year. It’s a bit like waking up from a dream and quickly writing it down in a journal before it fades away.
“So, rather than focusing on the outcome itself, what I really want to say to people is: I hope you hold on tightly to the things you love – whether it’s a hobby or anything else.
“Through this process, I was also able to reconnect with parts of myself that I had forgotten about.”
Featured images Seoyoun Shin©
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