Finn Barker-Flower, “To hell with the linings and all of that shit.”

Balloons, 60 metres of tube and volume, a grand entrance to the fashion world, Finn Barker-Flower finds himself one to watch as he rises through the ranks at Central Saint Martins. Coming to the end of his first year Barker-Flower has already been featured in Voir Fashion Magazine, ODDA Magazine and spotted at London Fashion Week. Milestones not to be snuffed at for a first year. 

It's not hard to understand why he has been picked up on so early, his designs are jaw-dropping. It helps that his pieces be spotted from a mile away, due to the size and volume of the garments.

Hopping onto a call between classes, Finn opens keen and enthusiastic about his work. Having come from traditional education, Finn certainly finds himself taking up space. He begins, “I haven't come from a creative background, I never did design until COVID. So that's where I started really. Since then, It's been a journey”

An honest portrayal he continues, “I was able to see a more exciting existence. I think with something like this I’m able to express myself and actually give something back to the world rather than just learning and regurgitating information, it really excited me.”

Navigating studying at one of the top fashion schools in the world Barker-Flower explains, “I really try and be non-fashion about research, inspiration, everything. So I tended not to look at designers.” 

Laughing he continues, “I struggled with the question who are your favorite designers? Because there are brilliant designers, obviously, but I try and look at things differently, I quite often turn back to nature.”


Geometry, a focal point of his designs, displays how Finn's previous plans to study pure maths at degree level influence his work, “So a lot of the stuff I'm doing is still quite mathematical. And it really helps pattern cutting.”

Developing on his process he explains, “It's experimentation through 3d. Sometimes an idea doesn't exist until I have something in my hands and that doesn't even need to be fabric it can literally be some metal. I'm looking at tents and tent poles and stuff like that. That's generally when the ideas start to come.” 

He continues, “I do this thing where I bounce back and forth between 2d and 3d. In this process of sketching and researching, working on a mannequin or even not for some projects. I've draped paper on trees before and used leaf blowers, because it's often a lot about performance and spectacle.”

“Just thinking about how can I create volume essentially. Cause a lot of my work is performance, spectacle-based volume is really important. And getting that onto the body in a way that isn't going to be really heavy or really uncomfortable.”

When you are first met with Barker-Flowers designs there is a stunning quality to them but you can’t imagine them in your local high street retailer, finding humour in this he adds “It is actually wearable, wearable is a bit of a subjective term, but it's really fun to try and find different ways to do that. And ways that people wouldn't think of.”

One of Barker-Flower’s early works was displayed at the infamous White Show at CSM [a rite of passage for the CSM students in which each designer is ‘to make an outstandingly individual outfit from an identical allocation of white fabric’]. The event is covered by the likes of Vogue and it's not unusual to spot top fashion editors in the crowd. 

His work parading down the runway he elaborates, “They had beach balls in it. Meaning that they would bounce around and that was never part of the plan. They were supposed to be solid shapes! I mean it did turn out really well, so it was really nice surprise.”

The atmosphere before the show is palpable for both the designer and model, he explains “I was with her (the model) right to the end before she went out...Somehow they allowed her to go out on her own, which was amazing. We'd been practising this little walk. It was this kind of weird ballerina with a really tight corset and then this explosion of a silhouette. Volume.”

Performance and spectacle are a running theme through his designs, with its effect obvious, you can't look away from his work. But how does this balance with the design process?

“I think it is pretty natural. I think if it was forced I’d be going down more of a costume route. I think I definitely want my work to still be viewed as fashion. Because that's what I'm trying to achieve. I just like a bit of drama.”

He adds, “There is, quite a lot of my personality within the work. I also like to think of it as its own creature and that it can do its own thing. Slightly unpredictable in that way. I like to be in the same room as my work, in terms of concepts and ideas. Which is, like I said, where I think that I ingest drama and spectacle.”

Building on his creations he notices, “There are definitely themes and they're definitely not deliberate as well. Especially something which I've only started to realize recently is I create quite a whole shape. So they're often not layered outfits they are singular, effective, seamless shapes. But, I think in describing the work. Expectation and subversion.”

“Creating volume in a nontraditional way, and then maybe applying that to a traditional silhouette.”

He adds, “That's quite an interesting aspect that I really like because you get so many happy accidents when you do (create) and just again, back to performance and spectacle the idea of not having any limits between art and fashion and seeing how far I can take there, The feeling that I have, or the work I want to portray.”

Still developing Barker-Flower arrives with wisdom to a younger self, “I'm probably going to eat my words in about a few years. But for now; To hell with the linings and your seams aligning and all of that shit. Just get your idea out there. And use whatever, because that's what being a student is about, just have some fun with it.”

“I've always tried to do that. I think it comes with experience to have the confidence to go into Wickes and say, ’Can I have sixty meters of tube please’ and explain you're making a dress.”

Concluding he hints at what is next to come, “I don't want to say too much, only cause it's not confirmed, but I’m potentially looking at London Fashion Week and Tokyo Fashion Week.”

Tokyo Fashion Week is a stunning proposition as a soon-to-be second-year student and it is easy to understand why, Barker-Flower's talents go far beyond “happy accidents” and display a level of understanding of his work that is sure to take him far.