L.M. FIDEM is a menswear brand founded by Hannah Donkin and Bianca Green during their second year at Central Saint Martins. Graduated just this summer, the pair oppose the conventionality of most by-default attitudes that you must compete in this industry to succeed. Collaboration over competition.

The clothes: think strong, graphical elements; flamboyant silhouettes and fabrics; and grunge, skater vibes (Palm Springs eat your heart out) amalgamating seamlessly to create a concrete aesthetic.

Three months ago the industry was surprised when Givenchy announced that the owner of one of its competitors, Donatella Versace, modelled for its AW15 campaign. “I want to get rid of the old system”, Donatella explained, “[we should] work together, support each other and make fashion a true, global community.” Donkin and Green’s partnership encompasses this forward-thinking ideology, watch this space.

Lewis Firth: It’s really unusual for two students – competitors – to collaborate on a collection. What spurred the idea?
Hannah Donkin: We became friends in first year at CSM after bonding over the Great British Bakeoff. Our work was quite different from one another, so the idea didn’t even occur to me until the end of second year. But after both winning a competition at university to show work separately at Pitti Uomo in Florence; missing our flight home; then sleeping homeless on the street; and trekking on an overnight sleeper to Paris while wearing our collections because they were clean and kept us warm: we figured we were a good team.

Bianca Green: I think being a creative can be very lonely at times. And the intensely competitive nature of getting into CSM means people often isolate themselves once they are there. It’s a really tough ride getting in, and it’s everyone for themselves. I think Hannah and I realised after the first couple of years that sharing the creative process and the satisfaction from completing a project together was far more fulfilling than going it alone. We both have strengths in different areas which is great, but we’re also very similar in our love of gin, asian food and the Bake Off. It was a prefect match, really. Although the latter three elements did cause much procrastination during our final collection.

LF: It sounds like you used each other’s strengths well. What was it like working together? What was the process of designing and production like?
HD: Working with Bianca feels no different to working on my own now. We both pick a theme that interests us both, begin sourcing inspiration together, we design separately, sometimes – and sometimes together – and then it’s quite easy to see what ideas we like best. It’s so much more satisfying having someone to bounce ideas off, and who completely gets your own vision. It’s actually really easy for us. We just seem to be able to get on with things quickly.

BG: Hannah’s ideas are really uninhibited when it comes to fabric manipulation and silhouettes. I am more influenced by sportswear, streetwear and print – I come at it from more of a graphical angle. Hannah and I just seem to steam through work.

LF: Did you have any disagreements when finalising the collection?
HD: We actually didn’t. We both ended up hating and loving the same pieces as one another. We both get on really well and Bianca’s really easy company. It’s not hard to bring up a new idea or a disagreement because we talk it through and it just gets sorted instantly.

BG: Nope. No counselling was needed during final collection. I actually don’t know how I would have done it without her. I had to balance final collection with rehearsals for my band and Hannah was so supportive. I’m not even sure what we would argue about as we spend too much time just laughing. I’d just send her some ridiculous cat/dog/panda/emu video and everything would be ok.

LF: You’ve got a mix of patterns, prints and cuts: what were your sources of inspiration?
HD: I grew up listening to Pearl Jam, Anthrax, Metallica etc. and we both got obsessed with 60s and 70s Palm Springs images. So we mixed these images of American grunge-bands from the 90s – lots of them being LA-based, and the ideas that came from the Palm Springs’ photos. It was about softening up band t-shirts, and grungy layered looks with sun-kissed, Palm Springs-led, trashy glamour. Hence the sparkly pineapples.

BG: Hannah and I want our collections to translate a feeling, to embody a personality and a story. Like when you watch a film that touches you in some way. For us it’s not about making the clothes look like the are from one mould – it’s about mood. We wanted this collection to feel like the bedroom of some 90s, desert-glam, rock kid: like he had a mix of his dad’s, mum’s and sister’s wardrobe and mashed up all the silhouettes and textures. Silk shirts; grungy denim; tight, cropped tops; and hillbilly cow hide jackets.

LF: What materials were you working with?
HD: We were lucky enough to get sponsored with some fabric. We had a real mixture of luxurious, silky chiffons, and ultra-lightweight, sheer-cotton shirting. Then any typical band-boy lives in denim, jersey t-shirts and glam biker-jackets. We mixed everything up and then layered the boys with beads and sequins.

BG: We used a lot of sequins. We were sequin-ing for years, it seemed. I still find them now, it’s haunting.

LF: What were the benefits of joining forces?
HD: Sanity was one. It’s like having a carer who listens to your thoughts, helps make important life decisions and gives you rubbish chat all day to numb the fashion stress.

BG: When you see those nutters walking around talking to themselves and dribbling, that’s because they haven’t got a Hannah. I feel like I probably would have got to that stage had I not been able to vent and chat rubbish when it was needed.

LF: What’s next for you both? Masters or will you continue the collaboration?
HD: We are starting a new collection together now, its obviously still all quite fresh, but we are hoping to make L.M FIDEM our full time career. I think we learned a lot from this collection, about what worked and what didn’t, so I’m really excited to do more work that will be a better representation of what L.M FIDEM will be.

BG: Unless we have some Eastenders’ Christmas Special-esque falling out, we’ll continue together on our label, L.M. FIDEM. I feel like our next collection will be quite different from our last while maintaining a focus on mood and feeling. It’s exciting to start the design process again; I think we both feel like its our lifeblood.