Portfolio overview: Graduate Diploma CSM '15-16

Last updated on Jul 14, 2026

Quick heads-up: Grad Dip wasn't the right course for me.

At the time, I was carrying a lot of untreated trauma, and it took another six years to find the right kind of help. And if that wasn't enough, I'd also been through some genuinely harmful therapy. So it was a tough year, and it shows in the (lack of) work below!

I've shared a lot more thoughts on the course itself here and on my YouTube channel - but please don't skip over the Graduate Diploma if you're not quite ready for the MA yet, it's still a great option.

I'm sharing some of my favourite pieces from that year, purely for reference. This isn't meant to be a benchmark for your own application portfolio and definitely not enough work to get you a job interview.

Hope you enjoy the pictures 😀

Draping Lights

This was our first project, and I totally bombed it... Couldn't even make a lineup. But I made some cool studies.

Cutting Project

Being half-Japanese but raised in Brazil, the kimono always felt just out of reach to me. Even after two years studying in Tokyo, I didn't actually own one until years later, in London!

It's traditionally worn in a very constricting way, with many layers to avoid showing skin. For this project, I used similar geometric pattern pieces to build a more dramatic silhouette instead.

McQueen project

Theatrical. Dark. Extreme.

Everything about Alexander McQueen felt like the total opposite of who I was. So the real challenge was: how do I bring my own voice into this?

My answer was a story about light at the end of the tunnel — a drowned world of anthropomorphic goldfish, inspired by Japanese folklore and Utagawa Kuniyoshi's ukiyo-e prints.

And lineup was... not bad, not top of the class either.

I didn't fully bomb this one, but I also didn't quite do the assignment: the brief was all about creating McQueen-worthy textile samples and, honestly, I was much better at making beautiful images than exciting textiles.

I think I landed a C+, but it's still one of my favourites, thanks to the photos I took with a friend:

Project ME

"What do you surround yourself with? What would the most authentic, unashamedly fabulous version of yourself look like?"

Starting off with kind of a silly name, Project Me was all about stop trying to be Fashion.

I focused on adding more kawaii nonsense to the everyday clothes I already lovedzng familiar, recognisable pieces with the proportions, colours and motifs only a cartoon character would wear.

I still bombed this one, and have plenty to comment on these illustrations now... hindsight really is a b*tch.

Final Project: Final Fantasy VII

Continuing with the cartoons from Project ME + The beginning of my work with digital placement print.