LVMH has deepened its talent pipeline with Central Saint Martins in London, hosting more than 130 students for its latest CSM Portfolio Day under their long term strategic partnership. The event is positioned as a bridge between one of the world’s most influential fashion schools and the luxury group’s ecosystem of Maisons, framed under the umbrella message Where Dreams Become Careers.
Inside this year’s CSM Portfolio Day
Held in London, the Portfolio Day gathered students from courses including fashion, textiles, knitwear, jewellery, and communication, who presented their work directly to creative, studio, and HR teams from LVMH houses. More than 130 CSM students took part in this latest edition, up from around 120 to 200 participants cited in earlier Portfolio Day recaps, reflecting the scale and continuity of the initiative.
The format is designed for future leaders in creative functions, giving students a rare chance to discuss their portfolios one on one with Maison experts, receive detailed feedback and ask concrete questions about career paths. For many, it is the first direct contact with decision makers inside the luxury industry’s biggest group, rather than with external recruiters or alumni alone.
Maisons at the table
This year’s Portfolio Day included representatives from Bvlgari, CELINE, Christian Dior Couture, Fendi, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany & Co., among others. Previous editions have also featured Loro Piana, Loewe, and LVMH Environment, indicating that the partnership spans jewellery, leather goods, couture, ready to wear, and sustainability focused roles.
Students had the opportunity to show projects, research, and garments to teams who actually build studio line ups and seasonal collections, rather than only to HR. LVMH describes the conversations as rich and meaningful exchanges centred on creative vision and the realities of working inside large maisons.
A long-running, sustainability-led partnership
The Portfolio Day sits within a broader collaboration between LVMH and Central Saint Martins that dates back to 2011 and entered a new phase in 2021 with the launch of Maison/0, their joint platform for regenerative luxury. Maison/0 funds research, scholarships and regenerative design teaching, and brings LVMH leaders and CSM faculty together around topics such as climate, biodiversity, circularity and new materials.
Initiatives under this umbrella have included sustainability programmes, talks with figures like Stella McCartney, and curriculum work that pushes students beyond traditional sustainable design into experiments with bio-based and regenerative systems. Portfolio Day is one of the most visible talent facing expressions of that relationship, giving students working on these themes a direct audience with industry.
Why it matters for future talent
LVMH describes the CSM Portfolio Day as proof of the power of connection between promising students and its Maisons, and as a concrete example of its commitment to nurturing the next generation of creative talent. The group’s broader Where Dreams Become Careers message underscores its strategy of engaging students early, through reviews, competitions, and programmes like the LVMH Prize and Maison/0, before bringing them into internships or junior studio roles.
For Central Saint Martins, the partnership gives students direct visibility with some of the industry’s most influential brands and a testbed for ideas that link creativity, luxury, and environmental responsibility. For the wider industry, recurring Portfolio Days signal how major groups are increasingly formalising relationships with key schools as a way to secure talent, steer innovation and align future designers with their sustainability and brand agendas from the outset.
