Textile and Fashion Design

Line up of mannequins dressed in white clothing in various styles

The Fashion and Textile Design research group conducts wide ranging interdisciplinary research that examines many facets of the design led textile and fashion industries. These include:

fashion and textile design
technical design
pattern cutting
garment production
design production management
accessories
illustration
fashion and textile merchandising
marketing
journalism
photography
styling
image consultation
trend analysis
historical dress and textiles
fashion and textile archives.

Our main aim is to promote and provide expert knowledge through research enquiry into all design areas of textiles and fashion with particular specialisms in garment technology, sustainability, fashion history, culture and ethics.

Aims of the research group

Our key research aims are:

To deliver a high-quality research environment for students and researchers.
To create innovative impact activities and research outcomes.
Offer services to the fashion industry such as: textile testing facilities, digital printing technologies, laser cutting, digital fashion, photography suite, whole garment dyeing, summer schools and CPD courses in various areas of fashion design, manufacture and textiles.
To encourage collaboration, development of resources and topics into modules and study materials.
To build upon current and future collaborative networks to develop strategic partnerships with local, regional, national and international non-academics such as businesses, NGOs, archives and museums and other universities.

Work with organisations and initiatives

Yorkshire Fashion Archive

The Textiles and Fashion Design research group is home to the Yorkshire Fashion Archive, a collection of haute couture, fashion garments and everyday clothing and accessories.

It provides a unique historical and cultural record of Yorkshire life and documents clothing produced, purchased and worn by Yorkshire folk throughout the 20th Century. The collection reflects changing social attitudes and influences, economic prosperity, global trends and the regional technical excellence in textiles and clothing over a 100 year period.

International Textile Collection (formerly Ulita)

The International Textile Collection consists of a worldwide collection of textiles, including Chinese Qing dynasty embroideries, Kashmiri shawls, Mediterranean and near eastern embroideries, block-printed cottons from Pakistan, Javanese batiks and ikats, Japanese textiles, West African weaves, 19th and 20th century European textile samples, natural and man-made fibres and glass plate teaching slides.

Archive of International Textiles, previously under of the School of Design, is now integrated with University of Leeds Special Collections and Galleries.

Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC)

The Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC) is a world leading research institute within the School of Design at the University of Leeds. It brings together multi-disciplinary academic expertise in design, technology, science and engineering. We work collaboratively with partners globally to tackle important research challenges across textiles, colour and fashion.

Expertise is built on a history of 150 years of research in textile technology and colour science, working together with industry, charities and Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – including some of the world’s most well-known organisations and brands.

As a collaborative research institute, members work with partners to create solutions that address the needs of industry, society and the environment. This develops new materials, processes, manufacturing methods, digital tools and technology, and informs decision-making.

The institute’s work is supported by one of the most extensively equipped research facilities in the world.

Projects

Examples of recent funded projects:

Encouraging public engagement with textiles waste management (Dr Pammi Sinha – PI)
Numerion Software/Future Fashion Factory: Virtual 3D Garment Draping as a service (Dr Kevin Almond – PI)
Stone Island 3D Weaving Innovation Sportswear Company – SPA Stone Island (Dr Lindsey Taylor PI)
Influencing the influencers: Accelerating the diffusion of sustainable high fashion clothing (Edel Moore – Co-I)
Yorkshire Creative Geoscience Engagement (Sonja Andrew – Co-I)
Revolutionising waterless textile dyeing through optical colour mixing and machine learning colour-recipe prediction (Caroline Hemingray – Co-I)
Back To Baselines in Circular Fashion and Textiles - Establishing a Baseline to Analyse the Sector’s Sustainability Status (Steve Russell – PI)
Analysis of the Impact of Multiculturalism on Contemporary Mourning Dress in Leeds, UK (Judith Simpson and Kevin Almond – Co Investigators)

Recent examples of curated exhibitions

Dr Kevin Laycock, 2024 - Quilt, Grid, Pattern. A free exhibition at Stockport's The Atkinson, featuring School of Design lecturer Dr Kevin Laycock's works inspired by quilt making. 16 September 2023 – 24 February 2024
Dr Bethan Bide – How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style. Museum of London Docklands. 13 October 2023 – 14 April 2024

Recent examples of publications

Elaine Evans and Kevin Almond. 2024. Yorkshire Fashion Archive. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture. 261-272 28.2 Yorkshire Fashion Archive, Fashion Theory
Eunsuk Hur and Katie Beverley. 2023. Fostering Sustainable Fashion Innovation: Insights from Ideation Tool Development and Co-Creation Workshops. Sustainability. 15.21
Almond K, Simpson J. 2023. The Decline of Female Mourning Wear: A Case Study Analysis of Frederic Forster's Mourning Warehouse 1849-1923 in Leeds, UK. Costume. 219-245 57.2
Shi Y, Taylor LW, Kulessa A, Cheung V, Sayem ASM. 2024. Re-engineer apparel manufacturing processes with 3D weaving technology for efficient single-step garment production. iScience. 27.8
Jiang A, Fang W, Liu J, Foing B, Yao X, Westland S, Hemingray C. 2023. The effect of colour environments on visual tracking and visual strain during short-term simulation of three gravity states. Applied Ergonomics. 110
Moore E. 2022. It’s been emotional – The neuroscience of irrational consumer decision-making in luxury fashion. In: Solomon M R; Morad M (eds.) Fashion and Luxury Marketing for Consumers.
Howard C, Andrew, S & Carnie, B.2022. Participatory Group Textile Practice as a Route to Support Mental Health and Social Interaction in Secondary School Pupils. Participatory Group Textile Practice as a Route to Support Mental Health and Social Interaction in Secondary School Pupils

Examples of academic research previously undertaken in this area include:

Garment construction and pattern cutting, use of nonwoven fabrics in apparel applications, 19th – 21st Century fashion.
Colour, structure and materials in knitted fabric design and technology.
Colour design software development and user experience.
Sustainable consumption, production, marketing and communications and design for development.
Social innovation, ethical fashion and other new business models.
Fashion in fiction.
Fashion and Textile design Innovation: Modular design, Computer-aid design, Social manufacturing, Laser cutting technology, Digital Fabrication.
Pedagogical issues regarding innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in fashion and textiles.

Members

Kevin Almond (Research Group Leader)
Bethan Bide
Boshuo Guo
Phil Henry
Maria Logkizidou
Edel Moore
Pammi Sinha
Tang Tang
Lindsey Taylor
Alice Dallabona
Caroline Hemingray
Jeffrey Thorpe
Claire Watson
Joanne Blanco Velo
Eunsuk Hur
Stephen Russell
Susan Rainton
Elaine Evans
Ningtao Mao
Giorgio Grande
Billy Kirby
Yue Guo
Anja Connor-Crabbe
Leanne Munroe
Rubab Ashiq
Natalia Sergeeva
Xiaoyu Yao
Zi Young Kang
Hye Won Lin
Sonja Andrew
Hannah Crow
Eleanor Scott
Michael Anderson
Molly Talbot
Judith Simpson
Ebtisam Alotaibi
Junbeom Pyun
Nouf Alfayez
Nesma ElShishtawy
Jacqueline Vater
Zhiyi Zhang
Ranran Li
Lucy McConnell
Siyuan Zhao
Yueyue Chen
Elliot Barlow
Yanyi Pu
Jianan Hu
Zifan Miao
Laurie Corbel
Jiazheng Nie
Yimiao Dai