Dutch born Michael van der Ham graduated with an MA in Womenswear from Central Saint Martin's under the renowned Professor Louise Wilson OBE. His graduate collection, inspired by Andy Warhol, featured multi-fabricated, modern shapes referencing by-gone eras. Credited as 'demonstrating a great command of elegant asymmetry' by Sarah Mower on Style.com Van der Ham favours in-depth research which leads to his unusual collaged approach to design. His eponymous womenswear label launched in 2009 and has since garnered both Fashion East, NewGen and Fashion Forward sponsorship and is shown on schedule at London Fashion Week. Van der Ham is known for his signature luxury collage dresses. Pieced together from various clashing fabrications. A wide range of fabrics are used in each collection from metallic brocades and jacquards, hand-made prints, macrame lace, tweeds and intricate embroideries. The textiles are custom developed in the London studio and produced in mills in the UK, France and Italy. Michael van der Ham has won the L'Oreal Award with his MA Graduate Collection as well as the Vertice Award during ITS Eight Festival in Trieste sponsored by Diesel. In 2010 and 2012 he was nominated for Emerging Ready-to-Wear at the British Fashion Awards. Van der Ham has designed costumes for Björk's world tour and videos in 2011, and was approached by costume designer Suttirat Larlarb and director Danny Boyle to design 250 costumes for one of the sequences of the Olympics Opening Ceremony in July 2012. He has also collaborated with Swarovski, utilising the crystals in his collections, has designed capsule collections for Topshop and cashmere brand Brora, and has designed show shoes in collaboration with Christian Louboutin.