Summary

I am a Senior Lecturer at the Fashion and Textiles Department at the University of Portsmouth. My research is concerned with theoretical issues of criticality in contemporary expanded fashion practices. My work draws on Derridean deconstruction and notions of intertextuality in film. To date, I have focused on theoretical notions such as Rosalind Krauss’s expanded field (1979) to facilitate the understanding of what might be a post-disciplinary approach to fashion. I conduct practice-based research in addition to written work, making short films, installations and fashion performance pieces.

Biography

I hold a Doctorate from the University of Arts London at the London College of Fashion, with the thesis ‘Towards a practice of unmaking. The essay film as a critical discourse for fashion in the expanded field’. My research sits at the intersection of fashion, fine arts, and film practise and theory, exploring notions of an expanded field of fashion, critical fashion and fashion film practices in the twenty-first century. My work has been featured in international exhibitions including The future of fashion is now (2014/15) in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam curated by José Teunissen, touring to the OCT Art & design gallery in Shenzhen and the OCAT Contemporary Art terminal Shanghai in China (2015/16); ‘Why-what-who: 10 years of fashion artefacts’ at the Venice Biennale (2018) and ’State of Fashion' in Arnhem (July 2018). I have been part of the 'transfahional' project curated by Dobrila Denegri since 2016 with exhibitions in London, Warsaw, Vienna, Kalmar and Rimini. In 2019 I have shown An impossible wardrobe for the invisible (2011) a seven-film projection installation at Manifattura Tabacchi in Florence during Pitti Uomo, opening on the 10th June 2019. Upcoming: Chapter ‘Fashion Ontology: Researching the Possibilities for Knowing through an Expanded Fashion Practice’ for the volume ‘Fashion Knowledge: Theories, Methods, Practices, and Politics’, edited by Dr Monica Titton and Dr Elke Gaugele will be published by IntellectBooks in June 2022.

Research interests

My research sits at the intersection of fashion, fine arts and film practice and theory, and explores notions of an expanded field of fashion, critical fashion and fashion film practices in the 21st century. Taking a critical and philosophical approach, ongoing projects in my studio include:

●          Unmaking, 2016

●          An impossible wardrobe for the invisible, 2011

Featured in international exhibitions and conferences.

Teaching responsibilities

I teach in the areas of making and thinking fashion with a focus on experimental practices. I lead studio-based practical workshop courses in developing new skills in fashion, as well as offering lectures and seminars on theoretical issues of fashion practice.

At the University, I teach across the BA and MA Fashion and Textiles.