Should 2020 fashion graduates hope to follow Alexander Wang and Molly Goddard by launching own labels, or intern at a fashion house first?

Starting a fashion label will be harder than usual in 2020 given graduate shows – essential to make an impression and develop contacts – were moved online

There’s the recession triggered by Covid-19 too, which means a fashion industry in flux will be hiring less. Yet crisis also brings opportunity, insiders say

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The Leeang Huang show at Central Saint Martins during London Fashion Week earlier this year. Post-Covid-19, what will the future of fashion look like for graduates who want to strike out on their own? Photo: Getty Images for BFC

Published: 2:45pm, 12 Aug 2020Updated: 7:45pm, 12 Aug 2020

You’d be hard pressed to find a student at Central Saint Martins (CSM), an arts and design college in London, who doesn’t close their eyes and dream of being the next Molly Goddard.

For her Bachelor of Arts graduate show, Goddard designed a series of dresses in tulle – the only material she could afford – and roped in her sister to do the styling. Sitting in the audience were buyers from retail company Dover Street Market, who ordered the entire collection. That rainy London night, a 24-year-old became an industry superstar.

It was the fairy-tale ending – or beginning, really – that most fashion graduates want. And it was seemingly happening on a regular basis. In the noughties, a series of hot young designers burst into a market that had been dominated by luxury brands for too long.

JW Anderson, Erdem, Mary Katrantzou, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu and Altuzarra became red-hot tickets at fashion week, shaping the aesthetics and career goals of teenagers who had once fantasised about working for Prada or Burberry, but who now wanted their own names on labels.

Molly Goddard became an overnight industry superstar when buyers from Dover Street Market ordered her entire collection from her Bachelor of Arts graduate show.

Has the coronavirus put paid to that dream? And if it has, is that so bad? In many ways, it was a dangerous fantasy to begin with, one that strangled fledgling careers by depriving young designers of the experience needed to succeed in a now saturated marketplace.