Ms Caroline Alexander

About

I first joined Kingston School of Art, in 2005, as a Visiting Lecturer teaching Critical & Historical Studies to BA Fashion students across all levels, and remained in this role until 2008. After a period of working in Further Education and Higher Education Institutions across London, I returned to KSA in 2015 to resume teaching Critical and Historical Studies, as well as teach Fashion Design on the BA Fashion course. In 2016, I progressed to Senior Lecturer, undertaking my current role as Level 4 Year Leader. 

In addition to teaching, I am responsible for managing an archive of historical fashion materials, including the Benenden School Costume Collection, which consists of men's and women's wear spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. This resource is situated in the Department of Fashion, and is available to students and staff across the Faculty and University for research and teaching purposes. The archive also underpins my own research activities and interests in 19th and 20th century fashion design, as well as the social history of fashion consumption and production.

I am also a regular contributor of scholarly articles on Fashion History, to the Bloomsbury Fashion Video Archive (edited by Valerie Steele, Curator and Director of FIT Museum) for which I have also recently been appointed an Academic Advisory Board Member. I also  contribute book and exhibitions views to The Journal of Dress History. 

Academic responsibilities

Senior Lecturer - Fashion

Qualifications

  • PGCE Post-Compulsory Education
  • MA Film and Visual Culture - Middlesex University
  • BA (Hons) Womenswear Design - Ravensbourne College of Art & Design
  • Foundation Diploma in Art & Design - Wimbledon School of Art

Teaching and learning

Undergraduate courses taught

Research

Published articles on fashion history for the Bloomsbury Fashion Video Archive https://www.bloomsburyfashionvideo.com or through iCat, via the Kingston University LRC webpages. 

2019 

'British Designers in Paris during the 1990s: Les terrible infants de la Grande-Bretagne' 

'Decade on the Runway: 1990s' 

2020

'Decade on the Runway: 1980s' 

2021

'Street Style and the Bourgeois'

'Maison Lesage: Embroidery on the Runway' 

Areas of specialism

  • Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Fashion History and Fashion Designers
  • Twentieth Century Youth Culture
  • Fashion Archives and Research Methodologies