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Elaine Evans

Elaine Evans

  • Position: Senior Teaching Fellow in Fashion Design Innovation
  • Areas of expertise: garment technology; pattern cutting; garment construction; dress history; Yorkshire Fashion Archive, responsible fashion design
  • Email: E.L.Evans@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: 2.72 Clothworkers Building Central
  • Website: | LinkedIn | ORCID

Profile

After graduating from the University of Leeds, I worked as a garment technician in two roles, including made-to-measure, before joining the School of Design in 2001, and I am now a Senior Teaching Fellow and Deputy Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Fashion Design Innovation programme.. My teaching specialism is garment technology, garment construction and pattern cutting.

I am a member of, and secretary to, the Yorkshire Fashion Archive Executive Committee, and I oversee the management and care of the Yorkshire Fashion Archive. The Yorkshire Fashion Archive is held in University of Leeds' School of Design and explores interactions between clothing and social / cultural history, as well as informing teaching at all levels in our Fashion Design and Fashion Design Innovation programmes. I have supervised a number of volunteers and interns in the YFA to enable hands-on experience in an archive.

I have co-curated the last two exhibitions from the Yorkshire Fashion Archive: Snapshot: A Story of Family, Fashion and Friends, exhibited at The Civic, Barnsley, and The Synthetics Revolution, exhibited at ULITA. The Synthetics Revolution was part of a collaborative project with ULITA, the School of History and the Enterprise of Culture EU funded research project.
I am enrolled as a part-time PhD student in the School of Design, researching women’s everyday clothing in Yorkshire between 1945 and 1989, exploring local sites of production and consumption.

Responsibilities

  • Deputy Programme Leader, BA (Hons) Fashion Design Innovation
  • Yorkshire Fashion Archive contact

Research interests

My research interests include:
  • dress history and its relationship to social and cultural history
  • sustainable design and production in fashion
  • garment construction and pattern cutting
  • clothing design for therapeutic uses.
My current (PhD) research concerns Women’s Everyday Dress in Yorkshire: Production and Consumption, 1945–1989.

Qualifications

  • BA (Hons) French and Textiles
  • Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Professional memberships

  • Costume Society

Student education

I am involved in teaching at undergraduate level on the BA Fashion Design and BA Fashion Design Innovation programmes, and also contribute to teaching and supervision on the MA Fashion Enterprise and Society and MSc Textile Sustainability and Innovation programmes.

I previously co-supervised a PhD project based on nonwovens in apparel.