From denim to performance art and bridalwear: a look at the IED Madrid student show

For the second consecutive year, the IED Madrid Fashion School presented its graduate show as part of Omoda Madrid es Moda.

The runway show, which introduced this format to the Madrid calendar in its first edition, strengthens the link between education and the professional world. It turns final degree projects into a showcase for a new generation of designers.

From all the submissions, a professional jury selected twelve collections for the runway. These were presented yesterday at the Espacio Jorge Juan, creating a deliberately diverse collective exhibition. The school's management claims this is “one of the main values of the event”.

“The diversity of the collections we will see on the runway today represents our greatest achievement: having contributed to training designers capable of building their own vision,” said Federico Antelo Granero, director of the IED Madrid Fashion School. He framed the school's work as a combination of “traditional craftsmanship with technological innovation”.

This edition's award went to Peio Santiesteban and his collection 'Flores para un Monstruo'. One of the looks had already been shown at the opening show of Madrid Fashion Week, held a few days ago at the Sabatini Gardens.

Beyond its aesthetic finish, the collection revealed a demanding construction, capable of creating complex architectural structures and layered fabric work. In his words, the collection was designed to explore “the fine line between violence and beauty to question who decides what a monster is”.

A high standard and diversity were evident throughout the presentation.

Alejandra Coco Bassey Oubiña, for example, started from contemporary identity and codes inherited from the past. Using tailoring as a starting point, she presented manipulated denim and structures full of construction details, with buttons that went beyond their functional purpose to take centre stage.

Sabela Yilmaz Peinó also worked with denim, presenting a frayed two-piece with a very interesting shape as part of her collection.

Penélope García, for her part, translated 'fileteado porteño', an ornamental language of urban space, onto the body. With this idea as a backdrop, curves, spirals and organic shapes formed a playful ready-to-wear collection.

In a more performance-art style, Álvaro Blanco presented 'Una tarde con amigos', a collection that, in the creative's words, “turns imagination into a refuge from rejection and loneliness”.

Following a similar light-hearted vein and moving completely away from ready-to-wear, Joane de la Quintana Urrutxurtu chose to include a colourful knitted ball as part of her 'Desastre' collection.