Ella Chippendale
Profession
Graduate Diploma Fashion student
College
Central Saint Martins
Person Type
Student
Biography
Ella is a womenswear designer from the North of England, currently studying on the Graduate Diploma in Fashion at Central Saint Martins. With a background in sustainability consultancy and an MA in Environmental Policy, her practice transforms discarded materials into empowered, sensual silhouettes shaped by Northern heritage.
Interview
Please can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I’m Ella, a materials-led womenswear designer from the North of England, currently studying on the Graduate Diploma in Fashion at Central Saint Martins. My work explores freedom, empowerment, and self-expression, shaped by growing up in a rural, socially conservative community. Through my practice, I celebrate my Northern heritage while challenging expectations around how women “should” present themselves.
Sustainability sits at the heart of my process: I work with discarded materials connected to my upbringing and re-engineer them by altering their structural properties, treating material as the starting point for silhouette and concept. Before CSM, I worked as a Sustainability Consultant and completed an MA in Environmental Policy, but studying design has shifted sustainability from theory into hands-on, process-led experimentation.
I design through the lens of the female gaze: pieces that are sexy but wearable, giving women space to author and reclaim their sensuality on their own terms.
Why did you choose to study Graduate Diploma in Fashion and why CSM?
As someone entering fashion design with an existing academic and professional background, the Graduate Diploma made sense as an accelerated, conceptually rigorous route. It didn’t make sense to do another BA — I wanted to develop quickly within a cohort that brings maturity and lived experience to their thinking. What I value most is how it pushes you to locate the “why” behind the work, and to build a practice that’s experimental, researched, and rooted in context.
CSM drew me for its commitment to ideas, experimentation, and cultural relevance — fashion is treated as a creative practice, not just a product. It’s demanding but deeply energising: the teaching is exceptional, and you’re surrounded by people who challenge you and become long-term creative peers. Vision comes first here, and it gives you permission to take risks and say something real.
What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on so far? What made it so interesting to work on?
One of the most interesting projects for me was a materiality-led upcycling project where I transformed discarded industrial sacks into a structured jacket. I developed an animal-skin-like bubbled texture through heat-pressing, pushing a low-status, utilitarian material into something elevated. It was exciting because it showed what discarded materials can become when they’re treated as a site of experimentation.
What important piece of advice would you give to students thinking of studying this course?
Commit fully. It’s a demanding course and it rewards students who throw themselves into it with real intensity. Be prepared to get uncomfortable — work in unfamiliar ways, take creative risks, and let experiments “fail” as part of the process.
What has been the highlight of your CSM experience so far?
My coursemates. The culture is collaborative and rigorous: we challenge each other, share knowledge, and create a genuinely supportive environment. You grow quickly because you’re held kindly to a high standard.
What are your career aspirations? Where would you like to be in five years time?
I want my own label that translates Northern female power into material and silhouette — salvaged, engineered, and unapologetically sexy for women to live in. In five years, I want an unmistakable signature and collections that land with instant clarity: sensual, intelligent, and slightly dangerous.
What is the most important thing you've learnt on the course so far?
To keep interrogating the work and pushing it further. Not to stop at the first “good” idea — but to keep asking what it means, what it’s communicating, and how to make it more specific, more daring, and more resolved.
Links
Follow Ella on Instagram