Madonna Made a Surprise Appearance at the Central Saint Martins Graduate Show With FKA Twigs

You never know where Madonna is going to pop up next. Case in point: Her surprise appearance at the annual Central Saint Martins BA graduate show in London on Tuesday. The 63-year-old icon was among those taking in the collections of 115 designers poised to follow in the footsteps of Alexander McQueen, Phoebe Philo, and John Galliano (to name just a few of the storied school’s hugely influential alumni). And she did so sitting front row next to FKA Twigs, the 34-year-old singer whom she went clubbing with in Los Angeles just last week. They seem to have first become friends in 2021, when Twigs sampled Madonna during a number of live performances and was among those to interview her in a Madame X-themed Q&A session.

They may be spending more and more time together, but the musicians’ personal styles have yet to rub off on each other. Madonna naturally piled on the crucifixes, and embraced black leather with a studded Moschino jacket and boombox-shaped briefcase by Shane Gonzales of Midnight Studios. As for Twigs, she wore a threadbare hooded dress accessorized with utilitarian Gareth Pugh boots, a sculptural orb-shaped bag, and hoop earrings from Marco Panconesi’s collaboration with London mainstay KNWLS. Both ensembles were day-to-night; they wore the same looks (including sunglasses for Madonna) when out for another night of clubbing at the members-only establishment Oswald’s.

For top prize winner Alice Morell-Evans, a knitwear designer who worked for Molly Goddard and Bethany Williams while studying at Central Saint Martins, Madonna’s appearance was the cherry on top. “MADONNA SAW EVERYTHING!,” she captioned a video of the singer taking in her collection from the front row.