University for the Creative Arts - WESTON Sian

Dr. Sian Weston is Subject Leader for MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors at UCA Rochester, where her hybrid skill set encompassing both studio practice and critical theory mirrors the core skills required at Masters level research.

Sian is a researcher and curator with specialist skills in fashion and textiles, and over twenty years’ experience of working within the creative sector.

For ten years Sian worked at the London Printworks Trust, a specialist printed textiles resource aimed at professional designers working within the fashion industry, and a key part of Arts Council England’s craft portfolio. Resource users included Jonathan Saunders, Eley Kishimoto, Peter Pilotto, Meadham and Kirchhoff, Celine and Burberry.

She has worked on projects with a range of significant National organizations including It’s Better to Travel with Arts Council England; Can Craft Make You Happy? with the Crafts Council; An Ideal Home with the V&A, and Pop! with the Hayward Gallery Public Programmes. Sian has taught at a range of British art schools including Chelsea College of Art, Central Saint Martin’s, and London College of Fashion

Contact
01634 888 702
SWeston4@uca.ac.uk

Sian’s doctoral research, undertaken at Goldsmiths, University of London, examined Burberry’s metamorphosis from its semi-rural craft-based origin in the mid-nineteenth century into its current status as a global luxury fashion brand and cultural object in the twenty first century.

Her expertise spans a diverse range of design elements from consumer culture to the branded environment, and research interests include luxury fashion and globalization and its impact on UK manufacturing; ‘heritage’ as a capital-producing element of UK trade and industry; social history through fashion design and retailing; consumers, consumer culture and a history of shopping; youth subcultures; advertising, branding and the experiential retail environment.

She is currently developing a publication for Bloomsbury that examines Burberry, showing how it reproduces elements of British-ness and heritage, often to consumers with a purely online connection to the brand. The book also considers aspects of contested labour, and how the brand deals with ‘bad’ consumers.

Dr Sian Weston

Subject Leader MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors, UCA Rochester

Academic, School of Fashion

Research Statement

Research Supervision

Professional Membership, Affiliation and Consultancy