My name is Elisenda, and I’m an AL at UAL, working across CSM with the MA Innovation Management and at LCF in the BA Fashion Buying & Merchandising, the MA Fashion Design Management, and the MBA Fashion Business, where I contribute to the Innovation and Fashion Business Futures unit. My background spans fashion styling, entrepreneurship, and tech-driven innovation across both industry and academia. I collaborate with fashion-tech companies, supporting the development of algorithmic styling journeys for e-commerce, and I’m currently pursuing a PhD exploring how AI-driven fashion recommendations intersect with human values and aesthetic decision-making.
Whether working in digital retail spaces or the classroom, my practice has always centred on how we express who we are through what we wear. Over time, this interest has deepened: moving from questions of aesthetic preference into the politics of self-presentation, especially in creative learning environments. In these spaces, dress is not just a mode of expression but often a site of negotiation: between visibility and discretion, freedom and discomfort, belonging and difference.
This Action Research Project emerged directly from reflections from previous posts, particularly a moment that stayed with me long after one of my sessions finished. A student approached me after class and, in a confidential and respectful tone, shared that she had felt deeply uncomfortable taking part in the discussion because of how one of her peers was dressed. Her response wasn’t about moral judgement, but about the emotional difficulty of feeling out of place in an environment where full visibility is often the default. That moment made me pause. What are the unspoken norms about self-expression in creative institutions like UAL? When we say “everything is accepted,” who might feel excluded, silenced, or unseen?
As John O’Reilly said, sometimes the task is simply “to table the conversation.” This research seeks to do just that; to create space for the often-unheard voices around dress, modesty, and belonging. Through this research, I aim to explore how students and staff with diverse beliefs and backgrounds navigate inclusion and discomfort in relation to how we dress in shared learning spaces. My goal is not to resolve the tension, but to better understand it, and to invite an open dialogue within institutions like UAL.
This leads me to my core research question:
In what ways do expressions of dress, faith, and modesty intersect within HE creative learning environments such as UAL; and how might surfacing students’ and staff’s experiences help initiate more open conversations around inclusion, discomfort, and mutual respect in how we dress in shared spaces?