Runway
FourNest presents "Tears of Kazakhstan," showing the collection is not just a fashion demonstration, but a strong environmental statement
Updated 02:10 am EDT, July 8, 2025
Published 02:00 pm EDT, July 9, 2025
Special Thanks: Gin Burns (The Lobby)
One model walked in sculpted mesh that looked like it had been pulled from a cathedral ceiling. Another wore a robe that felt like it had survived centuries. This was not a student show. It was 29 young designers stepping forward to say: we are here, and we have been paying attention.
The University of Westminster’s BA Fashion Design program may not carry the same global name recognition as some of its peers, but within the industry, its annual show is one of the most respected.
University of Westminster Fashion Show 2025
Known for producing designers who are technically refined and conceptually bold, the program has carved out a reputation as one of the UK’s most influential fashion incubators. Graduates have gone on to work at houses like Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, and Bottega Veneta or to launch their own.
The 2025 edition, held in the industrial cavern of Ambika P3 beneath Marylebone, felt less like a student showcase and more like a signal. Twenty-nine designers presented personal visions of what fashion can be when it isn’t trying to follow a formula, and the result was a show that made you pay attention.
I spoke with Robert Leach, the program’s course leader, after the show. “It was really a story of 29 stories,” he said. “Together with the selection panel, designers Charles Jeffrey, Paolo Carzana, and Stephanie Cooper, Leach worked to build a running order that let each voice come through without forcing cohesion.
University of Westminster Fashion Show 2025: Angelika Deopante
There was no single unifying theme. What appeared instead was a layered chorus of personal visions: garments defined by memory, place, family, and future. The students presented themselves through fashion. Across the runway, there was a palpable awareness of self and society, each look echoing with political, cultural, and emotional resonance. This year, more students had the opportunity to present their work on their own terms.
Inclusivity, for Leach, was about access, expanding the lineup from 12 to 29 students, as far as the space and budget would stretch. “We wanted to give more students the opportunity to show their work to the world’s press and industry,” he said.
When I asked how the students’ backgrounds shaped what we saw, Robert said, “These students are politically and socially awake, they know what’s happening in the world, and they bring that awareness into their work.”
University of Westminster Fashion Show 2025: Ellie Roberts
You could see it in their works. These designers had been taught to take risks and trusted to follow through.
Paris Otuyelu’s Aso-ikele (The Robe) blended Yoruba symbolism with regal tailoring, creating garments that felt sacred, ancestral, and urgent. Cheng Qian’s Flamescape offered a softened take on military aesthetics, oversized, utilitarian silhouettes reimagined as survival wear for uncertain futures.
Siena Seung-Eun Cho’s Zoom-Proof deconstructed corporate dressing into something sharp, strange, and totally post-pandemic. And Xiwen Zhang’s Nostalgic Futurism collided vintage silhouettes with orbital cuts and circular motifs, imagining a future that remembers where it came from. Anibal Hernandez-Palacios Caro’s Visions from the Past brought structure and texture into conversation.
With sculpted sleeves, layered mesh, and a palette that moved between earthy and jewel tones, the collection felt rooted in history but unafraid to reinterpret it. Different textures, different tempos, yet each collection felt like a mirror tilted toward something intimate, urgent, or imagined.
University of Westminster Fashion Show 2025: Paris Otuyelu
Perhaps what keeps the Westminster cohort so creatively unruly, is the absence of a fixed formula. Students are encouraged to follow what and who inspires them, finding their own rhythm within the program’s wide creative range. That variety, Robert Leach told me, is part of the magic. “There’s no one formula,” he said, “but hopefully, there’s magic.”
That might explain why, despite the eclecticism, the show had a surprising coherence. You weren’t watching 29 mini-collections, you were watching a generation trying to say something, in their own language.
Most people in the front row never see the frantic energy just offstage, models changing outfits in seconds, stylists adjusting hems, music cues synced to adrenaline. With 36 models each wearing multiple looks, the pacing backstage was nonstop.
University of Westminster Fashion Show 2025: Siena Seung-Eun Cho
Robert, who oversaw the production, stayed out front. “I leave that to the amazing team,” he said, referring to the stylists and backstage crew. “Once the groundwork is done, I trust them.” That trust seemed well placed, as what reached the audience was a well-organized show that knew exactly what it wanted to say.
He told me his favorite moment comes at the end, when the students step out together. “That’s still fairly new for us. But it’s such a beautiful thing, seeing the stress fall off their shoulders as they finally get to enjoy it.”
It was one of the few still moments in a night otherwise full of energy. I don’t know if the audience clapped louder for the clothes or for everything they knew was behind them: the late nights, the critiques, the pressure to become someone in an industry that moves fast and rarely looks back. Probably both.
University of Westminster Fashion Show 2025: Xiwen Zhang
When I asked Robert what he hoped the industry would see in this group, he said, “They know how to push fashion forward but also stay relevant to the needs of the business.” That balance, between vision and viability, is what Westminster seems to do so well.
They’re not raising trend-chasers but designers who can think, adapt, and still make a jacket that fits like conviction. At the end, I asked Robert to sum up the show in three words. “Fresh. Bold. Responsible,” he said. I agree. But I would add one more, intentional.
The Highlights
A tireless seeker of knowledge, an ambivert, a feminist, and, coincidentally, a writer. She is a psychology graduate pursuing her writing passion by working as a communication manager in Ethiopia. Writing is a wall she built around herself to hide her other personalities, and words. When not writing, Pomy loves to sit alone and wander in her imaginative mind.
Get the latest fashion, culture, and art updates, including magazine releases release parties
Sponsored Content
