Barry Batson

MA Fashion Management and MA Luxury Brand Management Course Director

Email:: Barry.Batson@bcu.ac.uk

Barry Batson is the current Course Director for MA Fashion Management and MA Luxury Brand Management at Birmingham City University.

Barry’s 46 years of experience encompassed most aspects of the textile, clothing and fashion business and manufacturing functions here in the UK, Australia, and China.

Barry has held several previous academic roles, including four years as a lecturer and Programme Director for the BSc in Textile and Fashion Management at the University of Leeds. Barry also introduced a new taught master's programme, MSc in Advanced Textile and Clothing, and was responsible for the entire academic management of the programme as Programme Director.

Barry spent eight years at the Manchester Metropolitan University as a Senior Lecturer lecturing to undergraduate Fashion Technology/Fashion Buying students within the Department of Clothing Design and Technology.

Before joining BCU, Barry was at Solent University as a Senior Lecturer in the Fashion Management with Marketing programme and Fashion Buying Programme.

Barry’s most memorable experiences was that he was fortunate to spend four years in Shanghai, China, with Raffles Design Institute located at Donghua University as a Senior Lecturer in Fashion Marketing and Management.

Whilst there, he was responsible for delivering Fashion Buying for Retail, Product Development for Fashion, Ethical and Sustainable Fashion, Fashion Brand Management, Fashion Advertising, Fashion Communications, and the Global Fashion Business. Barry thoroughly enjoyed his time in China and would recommend that everybody experience living and working in China at some point during their lifetime.

Barry’s starting point of his academic career was not in the UK but Australia. Barry’s industrial background was in knitwear and knitted fabrics. Barry was fortunate to hold the position of Head of the Department of Industrial Knitting at the Melbourne Institute of Textiles (now RMIT university) for 12 years.

Barry’s main area of expertise that underpins all his teachings is knowledge of the product and how a fashion retail business and the fashion buyer interact with all areas of the fashion supply chain.

Until recently, Barry taught Fashion Marketing and Management to students whose first language is not English but who speak English. These include predominantly Chinese students, Indonesian students, several Russian students, and a small number of other international students. As a result, it required Barry to be very analytical in presenting and communicating information to those students.

As additional support for students to enhance their knowledge of their chosen programme and subject area, Barry has organised several field trips to various local and overseas destinations. These have included taking Fashion Buying students to Shanghai and Istanbul, Fashion Marketing students to New York and London, and Fashion Design students to Florence and Paris.

In addition, Barry has attended conferences in New York, Washington, and Australia to build closer academic ties to foster international research, student placement, and overseas internships.

Teaching

Barry’s postgraduate studies in Fashion and Textile Management focused on the global shift that was taking place within the textile, clothing and fashion supply chains, and the competitive strategies that developed economies were implementing in response to this shift.

Barry has integrated this into his teachings and finds it a valuable topic that fashion management, especially those going into fashion buying/business careers should understand. Students also find the subject very engaging and are always keen to engage in discussions about this topic.

As a result, this has opened a broad range of research opportunities for students to include the impact of offshore sourcing on fashion retailers and their strategic changes in response to offshore sourcing. In addition, there is the response by developed countries to nurture a more compact, technically focused industry that concentrates on less price-dependent markets. As a result, this brings the business of fashion to life and separates the study of Fashion Marketing/Business from conventional Marketing/Business studies.

In addition, Barry has a comprehensive knowledge of the fashion product. Barry has always encouraged students to engage with this, firstly because the fashion supply chain is arguably the longest supply chain in business and understanding the fashion supply chain is crucial to understanding the dynamics of the business of fashion.

Secondly, understanding the product allows students to develop their marketing/fashion buying knowledge because fabrics are also incredibly powerful as a strong visual indicator of a Brand.

In addition, fabrics are also the defining aspect of Brand identity, and finally, the fashion designers and buyers’ relationship with fabrics are at the heart of the creative process.

As a final point for fashion retailers and fashion designers to be successful, good design is not the only factor in them becoming successful; good marketing combined with good brand management is also crucial to their success.