Current Research:

As a member of our Apparel Design Engineering (ADE) research collective within the theme of Textiles & Apparel, we have several research strands centred around digital and physical technologies for sustainable apparel product development and manufacture. Recent and example Post Graduate Research includes:

• Pattern construction to embed traditional Saudi designs into modern garment offers
• The application of body scanning for modern approaches to pattern drafting and its effectiveness for Saudi Womenswear
• The use of 3D technologies for placing the consumer within product development and selection
• Developing a relationship between 3D body scanning data and custom knit technology for fashion application
• Technically fabric: Innovation in Textile Practice and Design in 20th-21st Century Manchester
• Towards an equitable order system: a virtually distributed extended enterprise
• Stitch optimisation in composite materials
• Functional garment design for difficult to access wearer groups

My interests are summarised below, and I would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in collaborating or studying for a higher degree in these areas:

Production: engineering, management, economics, modelling.

Joining (flexible materials): stitching, bonding, welding, modelling.

Design: user/co-design/open-design (focusing on functional clothing).

Body scanning: data extraction, analysis and modelling, enabling technologies, manufacturing integration.

Methodology: At heart, I am a positivist enjoying experimental design, whilst being a pragmatist and utilising mixed methods, practice/ action-based research.

About Me

I was an academic at UMIST and Manchester Metropolitan University (where I was head of technology and then acting head of the department of apparel) before my appointment at UoM (where I have been a line-manger, senior line manager and the research theme lead for Textiles & Apparel). I am a Member of the Textile Institute and was made a Fellow in its centenary year and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. I have held industry positions as an industrial/ production engineer and production manager in the garment manufacturing industry, in the UK and Morocco, as well as having been a member of a retail buying team for a major UK high street retailer as a textile and garment technologist.