Rejina Pyo’s studio is in chaos. The day before our visit she relocated from the West Hampstead home-studio she shares with her husband, chef Jordan Bourke, to her new address in Hackney. Fellow Central Saint Martins graduates Marques’Almeida just moved out of the space, a serendipity that cements a feeling that’s been bubbling since Rejina’s graduate collection. She is next in line to inherit the Portuguese duo’s mantle of London’s favourite young designer.

Rejina left her home in Seoul, South Korea to take up a place on the MA course run by the late Louise Wilson. Then, after graduating in 2011, she started working at Roksanda Ilincic and some of her pieces were included in the ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion exhibition at the Benaki Museum in Athens. The exhibition’s curator recommended her for the 2012 Han Nefkens Fashion Award – which she won. Along with a handy lump sum, the prize was to create a seven-piece installation for an exhibition at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Art still remains Rejina’s greatest influence. Access to museums and galleries make London difficult to leave. It’s just as well, she says: “I don’t think I could be a good designer in Korea because you have to have such a close relationship with celebrities. People would always ask me if I knew such-and-such a singer. Korea has some influence on me, certainly, but in a different way from what’s happening now.”

Rejina looks for “happy accidents” when designing, often using herself as a guinea pig when fleshing out ideas. She has learned to channel her cravings to create extravagant collections into a more measured approach. “At the beginning I was greedy,” she says. “Thinking this could be the one chance that I have to show all my ideas.” There’s certainly an insatiable appetite for her work, but as she explains, “This is going to last for my entire life, if I am lucky, and with two seasons a year there are many designs to explore over time.”

Text by Faye Young