Designers Show Support for Fashion School

FLAT OUT: Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Harold Tillman and Peter Blake donned hard hats and orange neon jackets Thursday night in London for a fundraiser at the half-built site of Central Saint Martin’s new campus for 4,500 students, to be completed in 2011.

“Congratulations to all the women who came and wore flat shoes, which is a brave thing to do on the eve of London Fashion Week,” said McCartney, referring to the invitation’s recommended footwear footnote. Guests gathered around heaters in a Victorian granary – part of the new campus – as it was open to the elements. “I thought I agreed to donate 1,000 pounds, but I must have been misheard,” joked Blake.

“I received a letter which said, ‘Thank you for your kind donation of 100,000 pounds’ - which I didn’t even have at the time!” The new building project has spawned much controversy: The school’s head of women’s wear Louise Wilson said, “The students have to be bigger than the building – not the other way round.”