London Fashion Week: Models walk in plastic inflatables

Fashion Week is a time for pushing boundaries – but budding designers took things one step further when they sent models down the runway wearing giant dummies and pool inflatables.

Students at Central Saint Martins – which counts Alexander McQueen and John Galliano among its alumni – raised eyebrows with a surreal show that featured papier-mâché, rubber chickens and a lampshade.

The biannual style spectacular, held at London’s BFC Show Space, is a chance for students to showcase some of their best work and hopefully get spotted by fashion bosses.  

Master’s student Edwin Mohney, from Buffalo, New York, dressed a model in head-to-toe plastic to resemble a giant pink condom, with not so much as a pair of eye holes for her to see out of.

A pair of giant walking dummies grace the catwalk at the Central Saint Martins London Fashion Week show on Friday

One model walked the runway in a giant inflatable padding pool with just her head poking through, while another wore an inflatable mattress as a skirt.

And one daring designer dressed his models in rubber shoes made in the shape of chickens and even US President Donald Trump. 

Fashion bible Vogue gave its verdict on the show and on Mohney’s ‘eerily infantile’ designs, saying: ‘If sending a duct-taped swimming ring down the runway seems silly to some, ask yourself why this makes us pay more attention than we would a neatly cut floral designer dress ready for the retail rack.’ 

Stella McCartney famously recruited her supermodel friends Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell for her CSM graduation show in 1995 – although later admitted it was ‘naive’ of her.

Jump right in! One model walked the runway in a giant inflatable padding pool with just her head poking through

One model wears an inflatable mattress as a skirt (left) while another is dressed in a huge purple creation (right)

No household furniture for this model, although she was tasked with carrying a giant green cardboard box instead

That’s not very practical! Two women sheathed in colourful sheets don rubber pig shoes (left) while one woman teams her bizarre feathery trousers with a large cardboard box (right)