My uca.ac.uk

Open Days

Contact

University for the Creative Arts > Staff Profiles > WESTON Sian
This section:
This section:
This section:
This section:
This section:
This section:
UCA logo

Dr Sian Weston

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

Academic, School of Fashion

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

 

 

 

Sian Weston, Course Leader MA Printed Textiles, UCA Rochester

Research Statement

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.

Research Supervision

Sian currently supervises students on the MA Printed Textiles for Fashion & Interiors course at UCA Rochester.

2014-18 Supervision, MA Textiles students at Chelsea College of Art

Professional Membership, Affiliation and Consultancy

Professional Membership, Affiliation and Consultancy:

  • Specialist consultant to Crafts Council’s Maker Development Office
  • Writer in residence, Textile Futures Research Centre (CSM) and Textile Environment Design (Chelsea College of Art)
  • Specialist advisor, London Print Studio
  • Panel member and consultant for the Sackler Centre International Residency Programme, V&A
  • Member Design History Society

Awards, Grants and Commissions:

  • 2010 Clore Leadership award, Arts Admin London
  • 2009 Can Craft Make You Happy? Spark Plug curators award, Crafts Council
  • 2008 Watch this Space award from Engage (with design group Action Time Vision)
  • 2004 Mediumtown, CABE and Arts Council England, part of Architecture Week
  • 2002 It’s Better to Travel, Arts Council England Go! Award

 

Commissions

Sian has commissioned a wide range of new works from artists and designers including:

  • 2006-08 - New Explorations in Print, a two-year programme featuring Christopher Pearson, Rhian Solomon, Fiona Zobole, Simon Elvins, and Sebastian White for London Design Festival 
  • 2007 - Linda Florence, Sugar Floor for Textile07 Kaunas Biennale, Lithuania
  • 2006 - Hetain Patel, Sine Language, in partnership with the City Gallery Leicester and Lakeside Arts, Nottingham
  • 2003-06 - Homespun, a three-year commissioning programme for emerging UK-based designers funded by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
  • 2004 - Boys who Sew / In Double Bodies with Faisal Adu’Allah and Fernando Marques Penteado: part of Crafts Council’s touring show curated by Professor Janis Jefferies