Research
The School of Fashion and Textiles is a globally renowned provider of fashion and textiles education with a history that dates back to the 19th century. Today we are renowned for our students’ achievements, innovative research and partnerships with industry.
Our staff are practising fashion and textiles professionals and our courses address the global fashion and textiles industries. A genuinely creative, collaborative and international community, we support and encourage research opportunities for our students and staff. Research interests and expertise span areas including sustainability, technical and material innovation, costume and the history of dress, and the psychology of fashion. We also actively foster genuine interdisciplinary design research collaborations with industry and academics elsewhere.
Dress in Context research cluster
The School of Fashion and Textiles hosts the Dress in Context research cluster. Dress in Context is concerned with dress in all its manifestations, as well as its relationship to the individual and society. Dress is not restricted to clothing and fashion in the conventional sense, but encompasses all forms of personal adornment and self-presentation. We welcome doctoral projects that examine dress from a range of perspectives, including fashion theory and design, technology, psychology, sociology, literature, history and art. The cluster includes researchers from a variety of backgrounds and places emphasis on working collaboratively with academics from other institutions, as well as building bridges to those from outside the academy. Find out more on our website.
Other Scholars and Practitioners:
- Sheila Griffiths
- Zoe Hillyard
- Claudia Huxtable
- Caroline Raybould
- Beth White
Current postgraduate researchers (PhDs):
- Jasbir Kaur: Indian Fashion Cities
- Nataliya Rozhin: Unseen Body: cultural phenomena in contemporary fashion
- Gaopeng Zhang: An Exploratory Study of an Interactive Design Model for Fashion Company
- Xin Zhang: Chinese Knitwear Brands: How can greater creative design lead to global success?
- Sophie Johnson: Fashion Retail and Public Relations: The New Norm is Crisis. In what ways can Fashion PR co-create value through consumer stakeholder relationships in times of crisis?
Other research
Please see the research page for School of Jewellery for information about other research activities within the Birmingham Institute of Jewellery, Fashion and Textiles.