Is it time for the MA Fashion course at Central Saint Martins to change? 

Make, show, graduate, repeat is the linear process for MA fashion students. But we discover from a member of this cohort, Julia Dotson, that attitudes towards this are shifting away from an “old-school fashion mentality.”

Every year we catch a glimpse of the future in fashion. Selected students from Central Saint Martin’s MA Fashion cohort reveal their final collections during London Fashion Week. We get a taste of what fashion is transitioning to, woven concepts are unravelled onto silhouettes, crafted by the next generation of designers, makers and artists. 

This course tradition has sustained for years but is it time we are starting to see a shift? Sure, the show still takes place in the chamber of St Martins that has homed radical alumni and remains to exhilarate and enlighten the London Fashion Week onlookers but as we discover from speaking to Julia Dotson, it’s the attitude towards this systematic teaching that is shifting.

Raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Julia graduates from MA Fashion after dedicating six years to studying at St Martins. Their practice is a cultivation of materials found in 20th-century American domestic spaces and drawing inspiration from Derek Jarman, Gee’s Bend and Bill Traylor to recontextualise the archetype of heteronormative spaces in a queer-coded context. Julia materialises this using found brown paper bags, tablecloths and bedsheets to mend the mistakes of the past, allowing for an inclusive future. Their key motif? Using humour as a means of protest.    

We sit outside the MA studios, just a few hours after the lineup for the show was announced, as they patiently embroider a shirt and discuss their motivations, ‘future plans’ (I quote because how can you daunt a graduating student by questioning their next steps), student experience and hosting mending workshops…

Could you describe what your practice is motivated by? 

It’s somewhat vague, the two categories are craft and then the people. Especially now, I think, doing the MA, has helped me understand how people wear clothing, in a tactile, sensual way, and how you can make other people feel. And especially in terms of gender identity, clothing is one of the key things that can help you affirm it or feel disillusioned by it. And I think, for one thing, it helped me understand my own quite a lot more, and then I hope to help other people feel a bit more okay in theirs as well. 

It's sometimes easy to forget who will actually be wearing your clothes. 

It’s crazy how, in the BA, that wasn't really a factor. It was just kind of making sculptures that happened to be on people. I feel very lucky that I was able to go through this whole process to be able to finally get to how a person feels within clothing, as opposed to how they just look into it. 

Was that a nice journey to go into?

Yeah, it was nice, but also, I think it's when you're realizing stuff, it doesn't feel amazing. Especially stuff with gender dysphoria, it took me a long time to like, realize that's how I'm feeling, and part of it's amazing because you're like, ‘Oh My God, this is why I'm feeling this way’, but then equally so it's like good to grow with – God this sounds so cheesy – like good to grow with pain. And not even this was that hard, I feel very supported, but it's still something that is not a norm in society. You know, like your parents, God bless them, don't understand it, because they didn't need to, I don't even get it all the way, we're all figuring it out, we don't have all the vocabulary still because we’re learning in real-time. It's an interesting time because it's equally amazing, there's somewhat more language and other people around you to support you. But then it's like also a million things happening at once for example I was reading about how young, straight, cis guys are more likely to be conservative. Whether it's like, people in our cohort are now, at the same time, supposed to be the least conservative generationally as you grow old, somehow people like Andrew Tate still has an influence. It’s a huge contrast and equally so insane that we do not have gender-neutral bathrooms. I can't get over it. I can't understand it.

When I came here, I was expecting it to be very different to how it is. 

Right? I remember starting foundation and I was so shocked by how conservative some things still were. And you were just like, ‘how am I the one who's got these views?’ Especially coming from America you're just kind of like, ‘what in the world?’  

How has your experience in America been different? 

Some parts are just amazingly better. It’s a weird place where America's so loud in expressing political views, but then nobody actually does anything, because it's so loud and you're not making any progress. Here it's a bit more realistic. I'd say it's not as polarizing here. 

 Whereabouts in the States are you from? 

Charleston, South Carolina. It's a beautiful place, landscape-wise it looks kind of unreal, a very romantic place. I'm so lucky to be from there. I visit as much as I can, at least once a year if not twice.

Do you get a lot of your inspiration from Charleston? 

Where I'm from is a big source. I think the American South is really foundational in my understanding of the world. A lot of the artists I like are from there, especially outsider art and folk artists who have such a big presence in the American South. Gee’s Bend are from Alabama, which is where my grandparents are from, Bill Traylor and Derek Jarman who is such a pivotal person I look up to. It just so happened to be during this time of beginning my collection when I read, ‘Through the Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping’ by Jarman. It's like a short story, I guess you could say, or it's almost a lengthy poem about his time when he went to America. It’s interesting to see because I moved here with the impression of understanding English sensibilities, people like Sarah Lucas had such an influence on me when I would look at her shit on Tumblr. I think England also has such a sensibility towards textiles and textile design that America just doesn't have and I think that's such a big reason why I came over here. But it's applying both schools of thought together.

Is that what you reflect upon in this collection?

It's this idea of logos – especially with John Deere and the idea of the American Homesteader being the ideal – how America promises you so much stuff but just doesn't deliver, and how you're putting all these hopes and dreams into a literal image and that's what logos do.  With John Deere it's saying ‘this is the best tractor’, but it's not it just has really good marketing and changing it to ‘John Queer’ takes the power away from such a big corporation. Using humour as protest is the queerest and campiest thing you can do. If you can't make fun of yourself, then what's the point? I always use him as an example, it's just so easy, but Donald Trump couldn't make a joke about himself, you know? I think that is the epitome of queerness is camp. Or using campness towards conservative things making sort of the irony and the juxtaposition. 

Who do you want to speak to through your work and with this message of humour as protest? 

It's people who have a sense of humour and I know there’s a lot of queer referencing, but it's not exclusively for queer people. I don't stick within a very certain sect of a binary. I was originally going through this thinking I can't put it on people not part of the queer community but then I was like, of course I can. Hopefully, it's people who equally understand making and aren't intimidated by it. I'd hope it'd be somebody who can equally repair their clothes as well as buy them. I hope to make the patterns accessible at the end of this and make booklets so you can make the stuff yourself. I realized some people just won't make stuff for themselves but at least people who, even if they're not a creative, still have an interest in it and make it a bit easier for them and have the appreciation, which tends to be people who are in creative fields to be totally frank. Perhaps there's also a kind of mum-ness to it, I immediately think of the YouTube ladies who show you how to make stuff and hold the fashion field up for young people. Some of the patterns are very simple, you don't even need to sew them, you just need to cut them out and finish them. So if it can be a little easier to understand how you make your clothing and are willing to wear something that's a bit more like a statement that'll make it a bit easier and more accessible. I know the cost of making the clothes is a lot and my time is worth something and people can't afford that all the time. 

 People seeing the process before the final product builds appreciation, even more so seeing the time you’ve taken. 

Exactly because I've taught loads of workshops and the amount of intimidated people is kind of crazy. They're always worried about making it look like my example. It's been a learning curve teaching workshops of what people are open to and not but I haven't had the time recently to do as many. 

Where do you usually do them?  

I did a few with a friend of mine, at somewhere called Lava Club which started off as a queer picnic and then we did some workshops with it. I did two or three with them and they were so fun, but people were just so, worried the whole time and didn't bring anything. The whole point is to bring your stuff to the mend and only a few people did. I was at a party and I talked to somebody else about this and they also noticed that nobody brought anything. It's weird and a common-ish thing with workshops. So hopefully after this, I'm going to do try another one. But I think I'm going to try it with, kits since everything is there and something quick enough where you can take it away with you because I think that's a key element that you can take it with you, you don't have to let it sit.

Have you been doing those alongside your MA? 

I haven't the second year but I was doing it a bit in the first year and after I graduated the BA, that summer in between.

How have you found the MA, the experience? 

I think the first year of it was a really good distraction from personal things I was going through. Like I said earlier, it’s kind of crazy to say, but for the first time, it feels like I'm doing what I want to do and I'm not trying to please other people. Even though there are levels of it, but it took me six years to actually make clothes that people can wear which is kind of nuts. I can tell there's like a big shift, and our cohort is the last of an older generation even though the ages are the same. I think it's in terms of ways of thinking are very different.

Different in what way?

I think they have a bit more sense, I would say as a whole, and they just seem younger and I hate saying like TikTok is the main thing because it isn't at all, but I think it's a way of more of an openness to especially stuff like gender expression. 

A technician approaches our table to show Julia the finished buttonholes from a garment

 Sweetheart. She's the studio manager technician. She just does everything. Honestly, the course is upheld by the technicians. But yeah, so, back to the MA course.

Would you do it again or would you have done something differently?

I go back and forth because sometimes I wish I just tried it on my own. I feel a little further back, I don't feel further back because of it, but it taught me the confidence that I wish I had just gotten from myself. The biggest thing I took away from it is that you just need to trust your gut and I'm like, ‘well, I wish I'd known that before I started’ otherwise I think I may have not done it. 

Why did you choose to do it? 

I mean multiple reasons, in my BA I didn't get to enjoy being a student and COVID happened, I didn't have a proper job offer. I didn't think I wanted to do an MA, but in reality, I probably did because, I am not ready to do it now, but I'm very passionate about education. Eventually, I hope to do a PhD to further research and whatnot. Especially if you want to teach now, you have to have an MA. So all of those reasons kind of added up to it then equally so, it'd be really good to go have an experience and then come back to reflect on it. But then I can't speak for everybody on that part. 

Has the education on the course informed your practice, or do you think the course is set up in traditional ways? 

That's kind of what I was saying before that we're the last of this cohort and old way of thinking. It can get toxic, with that old-school fashion mentality, which I very much do not agree with, and I do feel like I got some pushback from it before. It’s kind of a good thing because it helps you stand firmly but it needs some updating, I don't think people know what that updating is but in the sense of having an understanding of what contemporary culture means, we’re in real-time now. Especially because fashion is just, as a whole, in a very weird state where nobody knows what to do and it's just like kind of a reflection of that, you know?

Were there any struggles with how the course is set up that didn't align with your practice?

I mean, even this show is quite traditional and I'm doing it by all means, but I don't have an answer for it. I think using this place as a name is, as we know, not great. It's great if you can use it to your advantage, but it doesn't actually help you in the end and it makes you a bit lazy. I will say it can be good in not having to make you use traditional practices like pattern cutting but it doesn't help you with other parts, if that makes sense. But then that's kind of like your job as well, to figure out the new stuff. I'm still figuring it out. 

 Daunting, but how do you feel towards graduating soon? 

I'm quite looking forward to it. It feels like a very good conclusive ending, but especially because I had the pleasure of having amazing friends on this course. I know people before have said they felt very alone but it feels very, at least within my cohort of friends, that I truly feel like we have each other's back, and it doesn't have that competitiveness, I can say with all sincerity, it doesn't feel like a fake friendship. I've been here for so long and the show's here, it just feels like, not like it's led up to this, but it feels good that it's at this place. But I equally don't want to be one of those people who just hangs around here and can't let it go. There are such good people here, but it has such issues at the same time. The main word is transitional, changing. I think the pathway to go is very non-clear but I actually feel at peace with that. I don't feel as controlling as I used to which is quite nice. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I feel a bit easier about it. 

Is there a sense of pressure on your course to immediately start your own label and go through the traditional route? 

Yeah, and I mean, going to a brand, would be great to have a job, that's what we all kind of want just to have consistent income and do something you like. But people get big way too quickly. That is one thing I know I'm not going to do, is try to make a million-dollar company from the start. The people I look up to, even if they're not in design have always been working forever and then, whatever ‘get big’ means, later on in life. Like, Julia Child was always the example. That's who I named after but she didn't write her first book until she was in her forties. The young hot thing is not working anymore, it's just boring. The more interesting people go and do all this weird shit and then come back to it and then the people who ‘get big’, get a lot of press and their whole life becomes that, you get so caught up and I'm very thankful that I haven't and I've had people to keep me in check for it. 

So eventually, would you want your own ‘thing’? 

I say practice. It would look very different than how other people have done it. But the big, big dream is to set up an artist residency on my dad’s or my grandparent's farm where you can have a studio and do your own thing, but then have this community around it. Kind of build a space where it's easier to find people, as opposed to having it be in like big urban spaces, which are amazing, I love a city, don't get me wrong, but having it not be the only capital of it. 

A tutor exclaims congratulations to Julia for getting into the show

Did you find out yesterday?

This morning. 

Congratulations! 

Thank you! In a few years, I feel like we won't have shows like this but it's what we understand for this time now, so I guess we still have to do it. It's a weird one. Especially for digital fashion, quite a few friends of mine do it and they're just kind of also like, ‘I don't know what this means, it could be a fad.’ Fashion is almost an old-school word, even when people say haute couture, that is a very specific definition: it's done in Paris, by these certain houses, at this time, made in a certain way, and now it's been appropriated to mean, whatever. Fashion is like… who the fuck knows.

Are you excited for it to finish and have the show?  

I mean it's never really finished. Right now I’m working on this hand-embroidered shirt that is going to go under something, so you're not going to see it that much. But so many of my friends have come in to help me do it, it kind of became this thing so I'm like, ‘oh, I just have to finish it for them at the very least.’ Or, I'm just holding on to it a bit and I put my energy into it, it has to be done. 

Do you find it hard to let go of ideas? 

 I can't let this one go. I was trying to make these wax shoes, and it was just not happening. You have this idea in your head, but you're like, no. It sounds cool, but it doesn't work. My whole point is that it's never done, I haven't made enough stuff where the old collections will then be the base material to turn into new ones but that’s my kind of thinking, that the clothes will always change. Maybe the shirt will be a quilt in like a few years. Even with stuff like blemishes and instead of throwing away the mistakes or redoing it, you just kind of go over it and add to it over time. A lot of it has to do with mending, and haven't made enough things to be mended yet, but over time I hope it becomes almost a new thing. I know some people visually don't love that aesthetic, so you have to find the right person, but I hope to make it a bit more of like, less of that kind of scarecrow look. 

What are some of the materials you've used?

I don't think any of them are antique yet, I don't know exactly how old they are, but vintage tablecloths and bedsheets, mostly from Kempton Market, but then my friend and I went to this lady’s warehouse to buy some of her supplies. So it's mainly that, but there are two deadstock fabrics that I got from the store here. Then a lot of brown paper because that's what a lot of the hats and accessories and a few of the clothes are made from so the paper is stitched on or quilted onto fabric and then you wash it, but then it stays intact. Those are the main three things. Oh, and, thanks to Matthew, I guess you can say sponsored by UNCOLOUR from Anabel Poh at Trash Club, so the screen prints are from there. Anabel stayed at my house when I was away so Trash Club is great for stuff like that. I feel like it should be a bit more like this because especially with stuff here, I feel like people try to befriend people to get stuff and social climb but I don't feel like that with this. 

 I know you were talking about eventually wanting to have your own resident community, what’s your opinion on the community within the fashion industry?  

I'm by no means done with the industry but the fact that there is new mindsets, hopefully it’s going to start changing. Always doing new stuff is going to be difficult anyway and it may not work out and you have to accept that. I finally learned that you do have to properly mess stuff up to learn, you know. So cliche and cheesy but it's true.

Julia’s collection can be watched here.