LCF MA26 | MA Fashion Artefact
- Written byS Williams
- Published date 16 February 2026
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The MA Fashion Artefact course at London College of Fashion (LCF), UAL, focuses on exploring materials and hands-on making. The course helps students uncover how objects relate to the body, culture, and society. Course Leader Naomi Filmer notes the cohort’s dedication to questioning what objects mean to us personally and culturally. Their work explores how artefacts influence social interaction, emotion, and belief.
Below is a glimpse into some of the extraordinary work visitors will see in this year’s exhibition – a dynamic showcase exploring artefact, footwear, technology, production, and fashion futures. As the exhibition unfolds, each section invites visitors to explore distinct yet interconnected themes, beginning with how artefacts engage the senses and shape physical awareness.
“MA Fashion Artefact explores, questions, and reimagines objects of personal and cultural meaning within contemporary fashion practice. Our students are designer-makers working across a multidisciplinary range of materials, techniques, and methods. We believe critical thinking is grounded in making, and that material discovery leads to transformative understanding of process, construction, and our physical relationship to the environment. This year’s Fashion Artefact graduates reflect these principles through work that addresses current concerns around social connectivity, cultural systems, behavioural gesture, anxiety and desire, articulated with sensitivity and critical intent. They present skilfully crafted artefacts formed through diverse material applications and values. Collectively, the work asserts the power of fashion artefact practice to question norms, provoke reflection, and forge meaningful cultural connections.” – Naomi Filmer, Course Leader, MA Fashion Artefact.
Objects that slow the body
As you walk through the exhibition, you’ll find artefacts that encourage you to slow down and pay attention to your senses. Some sculptural pieces wrap around the torso, rest on the skin, or move with the body, helping you notice posture, weight, balance, and touch.
Some works create calm spaces around the body, like Jingyang Guo’s wooden and metal wearables, offering stillness in a busy world. Others are about comfort. Soft, tufted, and felted surfaces, such as Wenqi Li’s creature-like bags, make accessories feel like calming companions. Materials like wool, fibre, and wood invite you to touch and explore.
Ritual, language, and everyday encounters
Wearable objects inspired by reading, divination, and belief guide you through different paths, give you choices, or introduce chance. Some parts click or rotate, and some surfaces show signs of use, grounding you through movement.
The exhibition also explores ritual, cultural identity, and language. Some works contain contradictions, allowing different histories or values to coexist. Others, like Yoon Ju Chung’s wearable Hangul, turn text into objects that can be changed and reinterpreted. In city settings, small gestures create short but meaningful connections and challenge anonymity.
Repair, play, and reimagining use
The exhibition also welcomes themes of healing, care, and change. Some translucent objects play with light and shadow. Accessories inspired by scars and recovery make marks of healing visible rather than hidden. These pieces are intimate and honest, offering new ways to think about bodies, beauty, and resilience.
There is also humour and playfulness. Some objects resist efficiency and slow things down, like Ketong Shen’s mechanical artefacts that make inefficiency intentional. Some pieces move in calming rhythms; others make sound, encouraging joyful interaction.
A cohort shaping the future of fashion artefact
The MA Fashion Artefact graduates of 2026 demonstrate how material exploration and critical making turn ordinary objects into powerful encounters. Using a range of materials, they showcase artefacts that deepen understanding and connection.
MA Fashion Artefact is a must-see at the LCF MA26 | School of Design and Technology Exhibition. Experience objects that tell stories through touch, movement, and material. Whether you love fashion, craft, or design, take time to look closely and discover something new.
The LCF MA26 | School of Design and Technology Postgraduate Exhibition is open from 17–24 February 2026. Monday–Saturday, 10am–5pm at London College of Fashion, UAL, East Bank campus.
- Read more LCF Stories.
- Check out more MA Fashion Artefact student work on UAL Showcase