Conner Ives has had the sort of 2017 that no PR could engineer, and no budding designer still at fashion school could dream of.

First there are the custom pieces super-stylist Jacob K (whose show credits include Balenciaga and Versace) requested to shoot on model Edie Campbell, photographed by Tim Walker for i-D. Then Rihanna was spotted leaving the New York office of her record label wearing his Scarface T-shirt dress. The cherry on top was Adwoa Aboah shunning major designers to wear his bespoke work to the Met Gala – the fashion world's equivalent of the Oscars. Oh, and did we mention he's still only 21 years old?

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Conner's romance with fashion began in his hometown of Bedford, New York – the very definition of a picturesque American suburb. He describes being 'bothered with aesthetics and craft' from an early age. 'For me, the love of fashion was always there. I cannot pin down the exact moment, but I inherited a lot of it from Mum,' he says when we meet for tea at a popular east-London enclave, rowdy with the comings and goings of the city's designers and stylists. 'She wasn't a fashionista or anything, she just had very American taste. Everything was really refined; she wore Ralph Lauren – he was from the same town – and I can definitely see that influence in my designs now."

Craving something outside of his Bedford bubble, Conner took a few short courses at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and, after meeting a rep, soon realised he wanted to study at Central Saint Martins. 'She looked at my work and gave me some advice. Knowing that going to Saint Martins was possible lit a fire underneath my ass.' After completing his foundation year and overcoming a few setbacks (he initially got rejected from the Womenswear BA), he refined his portfolio and was accepted in 2016.

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His clothes marry the two sides of an edgy girl's wardrobe. One side, heavily sportswear-influenced, taking vintage band tees (think Wu-Tang Clan mixed with Metallica) and refashioning them into elongated dresses that act as his very own arts-and-crafts canvas. The other side, more glamorous: dresses either daringly short, sheer or with exposed parachute-like details.

But how does this all add up to an unknown designer taking centre stage at one of the industry's most important nights of the year?

It all stemmed from a college project for which he created a six-piece collection. 'The reception on Instagram was good, and soon after I met [casting director] Madeleine Østlie, a friend of Adwoa's, who really loved my worked and talked me up to a lot of people in the industry,' he explains. 'Then Adwoa hit me up on Instagram DM in February and said she hadn't chosen what to wear for the Met Gala yet, and would I like to make something?'

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After a brief moment of panic – 'I thought I was going to have a heart attack' – he set to work on recreating a cotton coat-like dress from the collection in a more luxurious double-faced duchess satin with intricate appliquéd swans. 'It's the most luxe thing I have ever done! I made everything between my studio in Seven Sisters, London, and my parents' house in Bedford,' he recalls. 'I was a mess the whole time, and until the moment we walked Adwoa on to the red carpet, I was sure she wasn't going to wear it.'

Post-Met, Conner's star continues to ascend, and fans and stores, including Liberty, want a piece of him. But with the small task of a BA degree to complete, he's quick to calm the buzz around him. 'I want to be mindful of what I am trying to shape myself into. I don't want to become known for just one thing. I look at Jonathan Anderson and Phoebe Philo and how their work challenges people, and I love that. I know there's no rush, I want to have a long-term impact, to change things; that's my personal goal.'