Editorial in "Fashion Practice: Design, Creative Process and the Fashion Industry"

The landscape of research in fashion has blossomed over the last decades. A marked increase in academic debate and a burgeoning number of publications have begun to map the diversity, complexity, and breadth of fashion as simultaneously a major industry and a cultural medium, often dismissed as superficial and “merely” commerce. Fashion is by its complex nature multidisciplinary, comprising: design in both two and three dimensions, textile development, old and new technologies, craftsmanship and artisan skills, business and production, marketing, promotion and consumption, global economics, material and visual culture, history, social anthropology, and so on.

Sandy Black

Research Interests

Knitwear, fashion and textiles design with particular emphasis on 3 dimensional aspects of design and realisation, incorporating mathematical principles. Inter-disciplinary design in social and cultural context; Innovation in knitwear particularly 3D and seamless construction; Intersection of arts and science with design; Sustainability issues in fashion and textiles.

Current Research

My current research interests seek to Interrogate Fashion - its practice and design processes. I am developing projects that integrate old and new technologies and seek new ways to approach the design and creation of fashion-related products through the relationship between craft practices and advanced technology. A key concept underpinning this research is the notion developed with the Interrogating Fashion Research Cluster during 2005 of more responsible design that takes into account the wider environmental, ethical, social and individual needs of products and their users.
My personal research continues in knitwear utilising the potential of advanced technology for three-dimensional structures, and in particular the application of mathematical concepts to knitted artefacts and knitwear.

Drawing on my background in both knitwear design and mathematics, I am involved in personal research which is exploring new forms in the realisation of knitwear, using advanced technologies and based on mathematical concepts of topology.

As principal investigator of the EPSRC/AHRC funded Research Cluster 'Interrogating Fashion' I am bringing together academics, fashion and textile designers, computer and material scientists, artists, musicians and researchers to discuss future ideas and changing paradigms for fashion and accessories in the 21st century. With a focus on practice, process and presentation , the research cluster will explore, through workshops and events during the current year, three overlapping themes:

• Digital Fashion? from craft to mass customisation

• The Fashion Paradox: transcience and sustainability

• Fashion in Context: presentation and display, audience and engagement