Professor Alison Gwilt | UNSW Research

My Expertise

Fashion and textile design

Design practice

Sustainability and Circular Economy

Keywords

clothing

design for sustainability

circular economy

consumer behaviour

textiles

Fields of Research (FoR)

Textile and fashion design, Design practice and methods, Sustainable design

SEO tags

Clothing

Consumption patterns, population issues and the en

Environmental education and awareness

Environmentally Sustainable Manufacturing

The Creative Arts (incl. Graphics and Craft)

Expanding Knowledge in Built Environment and Design

Biography

Alison Gwilt, Ph.D, is a Professor of Design at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Her research investigates how positive/sustainable design interventions can be used to challenge the current clothing production and consumption paradigm. Currently she is examining how design can help keep textiles in use. Alison’s books include ‘Shaping Sustainable Fashion’ (with Timo Rissanen) Routledge, 2011; ‘Fashion Design for Living’ Routledge, 2015; ‘Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion’ (with Alice Payne and Evelise Anicet Ruthschilling) Bloomsbury, 2019; and ‘A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion’ Bloomsbury, 2020 (2nd edition).

Alison holds a PhD from RMIT University, Melbourne and a BA (Hons) Fashion & Textiles Design from Central St Martins College of Art in London, and she has worked in academia in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Following her role as Reader in Fashion and Sustainability at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, Alison relocated back to Australia in 2017.

My Grants

2021-2022 UNSW ADA Research Fellowship scheme award.

2016-2018 ‘Re:Textile – new business models and design solutions that support a circular economy’ University of Boras / Swedish School of Textiles & Marketplace Boras Funder: Västra Gotaland Regional Government. Role: Reference Group Member and Co-Investigator (Design for Longevity).

2016 Rhode Island School of Design and the Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation (USA). Visiting Researcher.

2015 Brazilian Association of Studies and Research in Fashion (ABEPEM) 11^th Coloquio de moda conference. Visiting Fellow.

2014 Research Design Service, South Yorkshire and Humber Public Involvement grant. ‘Body First, Body Warm’ preparatory study. Role: Co-I.

2013-14 ‘Make, Do and Mend’. EPSRC IMAGINE program (Sheffield Hallam University, UK). Role: CI.

2012-13 ‘Textile Toolbox’ MISTRA (Sweden) / Chelsea College of Art and Design (Holder). Role: Phase 1 Associate Researcher.

2009-11 ‘Fashioning Now: changing the way we make and use clothes’ NSW Environmental Trust, Environmental Education Program. Role: CI.

2009 UTS DEST Research Infrastructure Block Grant for new textiles resources in Design. Role: Co-I

2009 Japanese Ministry of Textiles: Organization of Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation. Shinmai Creators Project / Japan Fashion Week. Visiting Fellow.

2005-08 ‘Lancôme Colour Design Awards’. Three year project contract. Role: UTS Design project lead.

2004 ‘Seafolly swimwear’ UTS Student Scholarship (full fees and costs). Supported by Jumbunna House of Learning. Role: Design project lead.

My Qualifications

Ph.D. - School of Architecture and Design, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Thesis title: 'Integrating sustainable strategies in the fashion design process: A conceptual model of the fashion designer in haute couture.'

BA (Hons) - Fashion & Textiles Design, Central St Martins College of Art & Design, London, UK

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

Areas of supervision

Sustainability and fashion/textile design; circularity and the fashion industry; design-led strategies;
The fashion and textile design process; new directions or models of fashion / textiles design practice
Fashion as an interdisciplinary practice; human-centred approaches to design practice; fashion, textiles, health and well-being

Currently supervising

Emma Peters, PhD candidate: Designing new circular pathways for post-consumer textile waste in the bedlinen industries.

Alia Parker, Scientia PhD candidate: Critical bio-textiles: Reconceptualising human-centred design through collaboration with Mycelium.

Nicole Crouch, PhD candidate: A cultural ethical design framework for commercial textile print designers

Monica Cvitanovic, PhD candidate: Crafting time to care: Sloppy stitching as a method of reclamation of the embodied history of women’s craft-based knowledge within a regenerative textile practice

Joanna Fowles, MFA candidate: Plant Chroma Codes: A changemaker approach to colour sourced from urban foraged materials and waste.

* Alison received the 2022 Arc PGC Research Supervisor Award for the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture.

External Examiner

PhD examiner (in the UK, Australia, Finland, New Zealand) for 6 candidates