Meet the Central Saint Martins MA Fashion graduate whose work reminds him of home

What do MA students take away from their learning experience? For Central Saint Martins Fashion MA student, Renato Dias Brás, the lessons are learnt through his friends over anything else

Artistically liberated students come together under the roof of Central Saint Martins. They learn, experience, exchange knowledge and grow as artists, makers and people. Methods of teaching are valued yet encouraged to self-direct. For Renato, this led to the symbiosis of his cohort and discovering that the biggest lesson of them all is learnt from his peers. 

Two days have passed since the show as we sit down in the MA studios, which somewhat seem relaxed (I gather as the radio plays Dolly Parton ‘Here You Come Again’ and The Foundations ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’). As Renato works on his portfolio, he reflects on his final collection and shares his experience at St Martins including his move Portugal. 

Who do you want to speak to through your practice? 

I think throughout my sort of fashion education for the past seven years, I've really changed a lot and this Masters was a really big experience in terms of, actually changing my process a lot, even though I think the core of who I am as a designer is still very much the same and my beliefs are the same of what I want to do and where I want to be, but it's changed a lot in terms of how specific it became in the Masters. In the BA you're forced to be much more experimental, whereas in the Masters, I felt like I needed to, sort of, funnel, tunnel vision myself a little bit to be more specific, but also be hopefully better or just dive more into one thing and then be better at that one thing. 

What influences your work? 

I'm from Portugal, so I've always had quite a connection to being from there. Home has always been very important, and then taking aspects from there, which I think are relevant. The way of living and aesthetically I've always been very inspired because it's a very, sort of, uncurated country still, it's quite undiscovered in the sense that nothing is really aesthetic or it's not aesthetic for aesthetic's sake. So I think that's also why I've always seen my work in that sense like not chase aesthetics, but chase something a bit deeper, a bit more of a personal connection to the work, even though it's not about me, but there's that personability to it.

What are those deeper core values you chase? 

I've always been involved with craft. I think being from a small town, seeing the people, because I grew up surrounded by my aunts, and mom's aunts, living with six of them in a row on the same street. So I've always grown up with these people making things. Lace was probably the biggest thing and knitting, I've always been part of, I've always done this and I used to draw a lot as a kid. There's nothing to do, so you just do crafty things, you do a lot of things with your hands, so that's always been the core, even before fashion. Even if I wasn't doing fashion, I would always do something with my hands, that's always been fundamental. Even now, finishing an MA in Fashion, I'm like, ‘Oh, I could have done something else’ because my core values would have stayed even if I was doing another medium, for example, I wanted to be an architect and I know that I would have had the same sort of process if I was doing architecture. It's a different outcome but the research is very diverse. I look at a lot of things that are not fashion, but then I could apply them to something else.

What do you usually research? 

I love researching, but I'm not a library researcher. I like researching in terms of I go places, especially in Portugal, I just walk around and take pictures of everything that's inspired me. In fashion and in MA I was forced to do a bit more fashion research, which was super helpful. But I can still sense that what's inspirational is the things that are not in books. It's more about talking to people, going places, going to exhibitions, seeing people on the street. That kind of thing is what feeds the work. Since Foundation, [Matthew Needham] made me very aware of the sustainable consequences of being a designer. Not just in terms of the planet, but also in terms of people and collaborative. For example, some of the knitting that I got done was by these ladies that live on the same street and just being aware of materials as well, like I'm not somebody that upcycles a whole collection, I'm honest about that, I do buy new fabrics, and some of it is upcycled, some of it is not, some of it is new, some of it is deadstock. For BA, I bought a lot of fabrics in Portugal that I ended up not using, so I tried to bring some of those back which has been actually my favorite piece in the collection, which is the hoodie. It's a fabric that I bought in BA from this factory that I went to and the wool is from a region in Portugal and now that fabric has come back for MA. It's a very special piece because it's a fabric that I've always loved for what it is because it's so fun that I saw the fabric being produced. Aesthetically I thought it was kind of wrong because it's so crafty and then actually making something that I thought was cool for this collection is really special. It feels like the most honest piece because also a hoodie is so me in a way, and then putting it in a fashion context, which I sometimes find hard to place myself. 

Where do you place yourself in that fashion context?

It’s difficult to tell right now. After the show, it all gets taken away from you and people start reposting and everything, so I'm a bit aware of it losing the context that it came from. It was not about it being in the show, it was not about it being part of that context in a way. I did create this collection, maybe in quite a selfish way, in terms of wanting to do something that made me develop from a BA student that's in a very non-arts context. I really wanted to do this collection in a fashion context for myself, not for the fashion world. Even though it is very wearable and could fit in a fashion context, that’s not why I did it, so for me, it's been a bit hard to see it put in that context. Because it really wasn't about that, and I'm happy with how it looked in the show, but it wasn't really about that moment. I think that's also coming from BA, and I think probably my biggest disappointment after BA was how it was really hard to deal with the fact that those clothes just ended up under my bed in bags. For me, the point of this collection was very much that, even if none of this goes anywhere, I can still give these clothes to friends and see them wear them, for me, that's what it's about. That's the context I'd like to be in. If I make things, I want them to be experienced by people, by me. I don't want it to be on such a heightened pedestal where nobody wants to touch it. My BA was literally about that, about putting fashion in the context of a museum so this collection was the absolute opposite. It was like, no I want people to wear this to the beach, I want people to wear this when they're like at home, I want to see a friend wear this when we're very relaxed, having food and they spill things on it. That's perfect, that's what it's for, it's not supposed to be elevated, it's not supposed to be in a special context, it's just, still.

Do you feel differently about the collection now that it's over?  

No, I think the collection is still very clear about what it was meant to be and I'm happy with what it is because I did learn a lot and I think I've pushed myself to do something that's good and wearable, which for me was important for that sense of like life, so I'm very happy with that. I think the thing that I feel the difference now is having to talk about it after, or having to present it in that context, has been a bit hard. It makes me feel a bit strange because it’s a chapter that ended when I finished the collection. This bit is a bit like a void. So I feel differently but not about the collection, more about what's happening at the moment. 

How have you taken on the feedback?

The feedback that I got was from friends. I didn't really have such a response outside of friends. I find it hard when people come and ask questions, everyone compliments everything, so it means very little. So the response that matters is my friends, or the people that I trust and who know me and what the collection is about. Somebody saying it outside of that, is a bit meaningless because they say that about everything. Nowadays, there are not really people who are very judgmental about things anymore. If my peers in this room, the people that have helped me get here, if they say it's good or compliment something, then that's really special. This collection wouldn’t be here without the chats with my peers. 

How has the whole MA experience been? 

Uh…amazing in terms of friends. BA I felt maybe a little bit alone from my own doing, but I didn't ever have a group. I think here, because we did spend so much time together, it became very, very personal to a very deep degree. So it's been an amazing experience with my group, it's a very self-directed course, there's not a lot of classes, there's not a lot of tutorials, so us being lost in it was very good. So many big life things happened to all of us. It was good to see how people deal with those things and how it influences your work. I'm always somebody who tends to work alone but then this year, I really did not have any alone time and it felt so nice that there was family around, not a competition. I think it can be very bad if you isolate yourself because you will think everyone is trying to steal or everyone is better and you will start feeling very alone, very quickly. Probably the best academic experience takeaway was being with them this year.

Academically, what is this course like? 

It's extremely self-directed. This course is not made for everyone and it's famous for being difficult but that comes if you're not self-sufficient. It's not really that people are not harsh anymore, you can take the harsh comments but if you can't work alone, if you can't trust yourself, then this course is not for you. In pre-collection, I was told that my work was not fashion, that it did not exist and it was really, really hard to deal with. But personally, because it affected me as a person, not just as a designer, I was questioning a lot of my existence here at St Martins. After six years and being told it's not fashion, then what am I doing? It felt like I was failing miserably. Then after that, I thought so much about it that I did become confident about what I was doing and since then, things have come more easily. The course will push you to like the edge a little bit if you're not there yet and then I think from the edge, you do grow. It's very independent, they'll say very little, but they will say the right thing that will make you question everything and then you come out of the other side. I was quite disappointed by my BA and when I came to the MA, I thought, if this all goes wrong, that's also fine, we move on because I grew so much. The final collection is not the reason I came here, it’s more about the process. If you come here to do six looks on a catwalk, I think you shouldn't and I think anyone in this room would now say that after doing the show.

Would you relive this experience again? 

For sure, for the people. As somebody who was very lonely for quite a big part of moving to the UK, this was good for the people. 

What was that move like? 

England as a whole is just very different to Portugal, culturally, language, and people. The difference was very difficult in the first year. I was lucky enough to be with really great housemates and I became aware of the culture quite quickly because my best friend was British, so I got sucked into the British culture a little bit, which was very good and helpful. The education is free and creative which is very different because in Portugal it's academic. Even creative subjects are very academic. When I did Foundation, I didn't write a word, you just do things. So when I tell my parents that I've done a Master's only writing 500 words about my collection, they're like, that's not a course because for them, studying or having a Master's is reading. So a massive difference but you couldn't do this kind of work anywhere else really, I wouldn't have grown this much. I think that's what the UK or London is great at, it makes you question so many things that are not just the work that you do. Here, most of it is questioning you as a person rather than the work in a way, or they start there, they almost dismantle you as a person and then the stuff that comes out is much better.

Do you want to stay in London or the UK? 

Probably not move back to Portugal just yet. I have a love for Portugal now that I didn't have when I left. I was ready to leave when I left and I was very happy. Now I see Portugal as a very special place, thankfully, I've learned to love it from afar, but I don’t think it's the time to go back. I think there are bigger, perhaps more opportunities now here in London or other cities or other countries that I may need to experience before moving back there. Unfortunately, fashion is very stagnant at the moment, people are trying to do things, but the impact is little. Once you are in London, it does give you a sense of scale that's quite exciting, brands do scale up quite quickly, some brands are already big and that can be quite exciting in terms of learning because you have more possibilities when there are more people, bigger teams, more money. Also maybe having less of everything is also very good. Being somewhere that's very small that you have to go from the ground up is good.  

Is that what you eventually want to do, have your practice? 

That's also changed. When I started my MA, that was very much the goal, was to build something by myself or with friends, now it's a bit complicated to say that confidently. After doing this, it's a bit hard to see how that would be sustainable long term, sustainable in every sense of the word. I've seen people try to do it, people my age try to do it, the struggles that they go through. I'm open to it, but I'm not going to throw myself at the opportunity, or if something comes my way, I'm going to have to be very aware of the implications of that decision. I see it perhaps in the future, but not just yet.

What do you see yourself doing next?  

I will take it as it comes. But I do think I would like to go somewhere that hopefully I have the choice of but to a bigger brand that does things or does work that I believe in. Either it is for their craft values like a lot of Italian brands have. I think the idea of going somewhere that has scale is exciting because of the possibilities that that gives you. I interned in quite big brands, and seeing that you can do things, more things with a bigger team is exciting. I think it's really exciting in terms of design but also in terms of how you can scale something up is exciting. I’m very specific with what this collection was about and because that's the way I think rationally, all these things take so long and I'm small-minded in that sense that I would like to do something really, really specific if I were ever to have a brand. Now I want to do the opposite and see what it's like to be part of the opposite. I would go somewhere small, to see it grow, being part of that would be incredible but then I think the monetary reasons to not do it are very important at the moment, it's kind of a scary moment to just finish and be unemployed. Like this city is just, you know, interning here is impossible. If somebody offers me not enough to pay rent, it's a no, no matter how much I love or believe in it, I can't take it. 

Are you working on your portfolio now?

I’ve got the portfolio for two weeks, and I'm quite excited to do the portfolio to remove myself from the clothes, which are important, but then the process is equally as important so it'd be really good to like display that. It's something I've always enjoyed doing because, for me, that's the ideal way of showing the work and visually explaining what the collection is about well enough that I don't have to talk about it. I don't think I'm great at explaining it verbally. But I think if I show people the process or the research or all that, I think it is much more sincere, if you look at the research, maybe you will see that it is quite personal and understand the layers that it has. Whereas if you see it now and I start describing it, I will be very distant from it. I’m open to people’s interpretations but this weekend was a bit strange seeing things like come out about my work, it was quite hard to stay off it, to be honest. Even the stuff that I've written and sent to people, it's weird to see it out for people to read. I find that quite strange. The clothes I don't mind, I’m comfortable that they’re out now it's more the words, I'm not a writer, I'm not a PR person, I'm not a marketing person so it's hard that we have to be all those things when it doesn't come naturally to me. You quickly realise that it's all meaningless in a way.

Meaningless in what sense? 

This means a lot to me but that's it. It ends there. People might be excited or might be critical, and the next day, nobody remembers. There's another show. So, in a way, it's so good to be aware of how small of a deal this is for everyone else. I've read and seen things that are not true and are not honest, I know because I was here. But I suppose we all have to play the game.

Renato’s collection can be watched here.