Central Saint Martins graduate João Machado explores his own feelings in the most intimate of settings - inspired by Alexander McQueen’s theatre of emotion.
Curious about the human behaviour in their most intimate setting, Central Saint Martins graduate João Machado began draping and sculpting silhouettes that mirror real-life stories of intimacy. Presenting his graduate collection at the CSM MA fashion show this past February, Machado drew a parallel of a lover’s interpersonal quarrel and the romanticism of Renaissance through twisted sartorial blazers in cream silk and lacing across trousers and skirts for added vulnerability.
Opening up to Perfect, the young designer speaks upon the exploration of an open dialogue in his first relationship that inspired the collection, and how watching the theatrical stories of human emotion of the late Alexander McQueen inspired him to begin draping and sketching at a young age.
Angel: What was your first introduction to the world of fashion as a child? Were you always drawn to it?
João Machado: My family works purely in business and doesn’t have much interest in arts, so I’d never seen fashion when I was younger. My dad would’ve been the one introducing me onto thinking broadly, creatively and liking artistic things, as he always loved going on trips with us, to museums and galleries, specially to Italy. The first time I saw fashion was in middle school and watched fashion shows from Alexander McQueen and Christian Dior in 2009/10, I was absolutely in love with it, not only because of the “fashions” but more importantly because of the storytelling aspect of it. I used to create fantastical stories and plots when playing Barbies with my sister, so I guess fashion became the next step after them.
Angel: How did you start sketching and creating clothes?
João Machado: Once I saw those shows, I immediately decided to start sketching clothes on stick figures, recreating skirts, dresses and shoes from collections. It felt extremely natural to start doing it, as it gave me a passion that I couldn’t find during my early teens/childhood. I then went onto study a technical fashion course in Porto (mostly Photoshop, Illustrator and CAD drawing) but only started creating clothes in Fashion Folio at CSM.
Angel: What was your fashion school experience during Covid?
João Machado: Overall, I would have to say I that I felt more disconnected with fashion. I absolutely loved it nonetheless, but prior to covid, I lived obsessively for my projects, collections and creating fantastical stories. These were therapeutical to me. When COVID appeared, it made me realise how important social interaction with friends, family and partners, matters instead of obsessively focusing on fashion. Then onwards, I devoted half of my time to fashion in the MA and the other half of my time onto my partner, and it was so liberating to take my mind out of it and actual be in the present with someone.
Angel: Your MA debut collection surrounds the idea of intimacy in the most private of settings, what inspired that?
João Machado: I started dating someone during covid and during lockdown, we spent most of the time indoors or at Victoria Park. During that time, he shared with me his fears of being a gay man from Korea, of not being out of the closet, the obligatory army service in his home country and the lack of LGBT rights and people in his life, prior to coming to London. This was a different reality to mine, and we entered a stage of our relationship where I would support him fiercely, never pressuring him towards anything, but giving him the confidence and space he needed at the time to share his feelings and feel happier. Once we broke up, due to his visa expiring and consequent return to Korea, I was left in my bedroom, where we shared so many emotions and feelings, and my only way to process the emptiness I felt was to use it as a starting point onto creating my MA collection.
Angel: What is your process of creation, how do you approach your collections?
João Machado: It always comes from a deep mixture of emotions that I’m going through at the time, mixed with historical visual references. I always start looking into what I feel, process it, and create a story that I feel relevant not only to myself, but to others who could be going through similar situations. This, mixed with historical and fashion visual references is what guides my creative process.
Angel: Going forward, you are moving to Seoul very soon, how do you see the future both creatively and personally?
João Machado: I see it in a refreshing way, I’ve been in London for 8 years and at CSM for 7, so it will be exciting for sure! Personally, I will mature and challenge myself even further. Creatively, I’m curious to see where it will lead me. My goal is to explore and see for myself the country that my previous partner told me about, see if there’s something I can do to change his society for the better, no matter how minimal it could be. I need to do something that could be meaningful and different from following through the European fashion route, even if it ends up not being fashion. Somewhere where I can still use my creative process, which will always be there.
