Research group: Fashion Technologies

Making fashion has always been inextricably linked with technology – from the looms of the first industrial revolution to the emerging proposals for ethical and sustainable use of AI systems and collaborative robotics in Industry 5.0.

We’re equally interested in the creative relationship between practitioners and tools at all points on this technological spectrum.

Fundamentally, our research recognises that technologies inform practice, and practices inform technology design.

In an academic field that has rarely explored the mechanisms of practice, only its creative outcomes, key questions include:

• How can the development of new tools help to shift practices and reduce the catastrophic environmental impacts of the fashion industry?
• How can we quantify and document existing skilled practices, to preserve them as technology advances and tools develop?
• Can this awareness help to create innovative ‘low code’ and ‘no code’ technologies that are accessible to creative practitioners?
• What new creative forms can be achieved with innovative technologies?