CSM's Wilson: fashion students always poor, untalented, then talented

‘I think the students work harder than we ever worked, but they have to because a lot of them haven’t got the skills that the old courses trained people in. The dynamic hasn’t changed—they’ve always been poor, they’ve always been untalented and then become talented, and they’ve always been insecure. At some point, they become people you want to know because you’ve worked with them and then they leave and you start with another group.

‘They have less skills now though, and I don’t care who hears that – they outsource more. When you talk about people like Lee McQueen or Christopher Kane, they did everything themselves – with no money, they could generate whatever they needed to. But the pressure on the students is greater now. What is expected of a student is beyond human – the MA fashion show is shown during London Fas