Dr. Martens is reuniting with Central Saint Martins (CSM) to spotlight young fashion designers once again.
The British footwear brand plans to give four master students from the University of the Arts London (UAL) fashion school the opportunity to display their work at London Fashion Week next year. The finalists, whose winning prototypes will be launched alongside the Central Saint Martins MA fashion graduate show, will also win 5,000 pounds ($6,367).
The competition tasked students with creating a customized pair of 1460 boots—with a full, matching outfit—that brings “their own rebellious DNA to life.” A panel of industry experts have shortlisted nine students so far: Atli Geir Alfreðsson, Joyce Bao, Dhruv Bandil, Yanya Cheng, Alvaro Mars, Valeria Pulici, Maximilian Raynor, Traiceline Pratt and Finlay Vincent.
The panel includes Dr. Martens creative director Darren McKoy and CSA MA fashion course leader Fabio Piras, as well as Lulu Kennedy, founder of the talent incubator Fashion East, and Erin Magee, vice president of design at Supreme and founder of MadeMe. The judges will eventually select four finalists to work with Dr. Martens’ design and production team to create their customized 1460 boots at the company’s Northamptonshire factory.
A look from student designer Valeria Pulici.
Courtesy of Dr. Martens
Last year, Dr. Martens and CSM collaborated on a similar campaign that tasked students with interpreting the theme of “All Access Summer.” The five participants—chosen by Piras and McKoy—debuted their end products on 1 Granary, a platform created by CSM students to showcase the school’s talent.
This June, Dr. Martens celebrated its first year reaching 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) in annual revenue. This past fiscal year, sales grew 10 percent year over year despite a 2 percent decrease in the number of pairs sold. Direct-to-consumer made up a significant part of this growth, increasing 16 percent—to now account for more than half of revenue—while wholesale inched up 4 percent.