Rashmita is an educator, researcher and designer with a diverse background in the fashion and textiles industry both in Australia and internationally. With a unique blend of industry experience and academic insight, she is currently an Assistant Program Manager for the Bachelor of Fashion Enterprise and a Lecturer in Digital Applications, Industry Partnered Project and coordinates and teaches into the Global Expoerience study tour. 

Her teaching focuses on equipping students with creative digital skills—ranging from software fluency to immersive design approaches—empowering them to navigate and shape the evolving fashion landscape. She works with diverse industry partners to bring real world projects into the classroom. She has coordinated and led students at study tours to Indonesia.

Her research sits at the intersection of material innovation and sensory-emotional design, exploring conscious material choices, sensory attributes, product attachment and design for wellbeing. Passionate about inclusive and sustainable practices, Rashmita advocates for design processes that are mindful of both people and the planet. She is particularly intrigued by the potential of AI in material haptics, where digital and physical touchpoints merge to create meaningful product experiences. Her work bridges product development, research and pedagogy making her a dynamic contributor to the future of fashion and design education.

Associate Professor Ricarda Bigolin is a practice-based researcher, educator and designer. Ricarda’s research, teaching and design practice is recognised internationally with ongoing collaborations in research and education with some of the best Fashion, Design and Art Universities in the world. She is regarded as one of the establishing practitioners in the niche fields of critical and expanded fashion practice. Their practice research has has won international awards and acquisitive prizes in museums internationally and their work is shown regularly leading art and design museums, galleries, publications and universities globally. For over nine years they have been active in Fashion Design Discipline and Program leadership as the Associate Dean of Fashion and Textiles Design (2019 - 2024) and Program Manager for Masters and Honours degrees (2016 - 2018). They are a recognised leader of advancing design practice and advocating ways to support the progression of teaching and research practices in fashion design to better reflect relationships between design, diversity and sustainability.

Their practice research explores critical tactics and interventions to challenge how fashion is produced and consumed using arts-based and material methods, wearing and performing to reveal relationships between fashion, value and use. They have been an associated partner on European research grants, research networks and have been PI on innovative contract research grants and collaborations with industry partner Nike. Since completing their practice based PhD in 2012 in expanded and critical fashion, their practice work as ‘D&K’ and been commissiioned for projects including art, design abd curatorial with collaboratiobns with leading artists including at the NGV Triennial, National Wool Museum Australia, Rising Melbourne, UTS Gallery Sydney, RMIT Design Hub Gallery, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Netherlands, OCAT Shenzhen, China, State of Fashion, Arnhem, Netherlands, A Shaded View of Fashion Film, Paris. 

Ricarda has ongoing collaboration on teaching and research projects with the Swedish School of Textiles, the University of Borås since 2013, where Ricarda is a visiting Professor participating in research projects as part of the Body and Space research program as well as co-convening conferences, examining Masters and PhDs, giving seminars, workshops and teaching. Ricarda also has since 2015 given lectures, studio visits, program accreditation and examinations and is part of the learning community of the MA Critical Fashion Practices, ArtEZ, University of the Arts, Arnhem, the Netherlands. Ricarda also from 2022 - 2024 was a member of the AHRC funded International Upcycling Network with De Montfort University and currently one of five practices selected for the AHRC funded Practice Based Fashion Research Network led by Parsons and Northumbria University. 

A/Professor Taylor Brydges is Director of the Weft Research Centre at RMIT University. An economic geographer, she researches sustainable fashion and textile systems, circular economies and innovation pathways across global supply chains. With experience across Australia, Europe and Canada, she works closely with industry, policymakers and researchers to support more sustainable, resilient and socially just fashion futures.

I am a creative patternmaker and fashion design academic investigating the intersection of garment making, digital garment technologies, and aerospace. I position patternmaking as a critical site of innovation, and I explore garment design for posture-specific and use-case-dependent conditions.

My research aims to develop frameworks that facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration and engagement with industry partners. For the benefit of addressing complex challenges, my work aims to develop digital tools that enable experts from diverse fields to co-create more effective, purpose-driven clothing solutions.

Remie Cibis is a critical and expanded fashion practitioner and Lecturer in Fashion & Textiles at RMIT University, Melbourne. Her research explores how clothes can be understood as images and what this means for wearers. Combining garment-making, performance, photography, and interactive workshops, she seeks to understand how fashion-images are produced and to design new opportunities for wearers to fashion their own representations using material and participatory fashion practices.

Cibis’ research has been presented at Melbourne Fashion Festival, Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, and in various gallery spaces including Conical, First Site and Federation Square’s FedTV. Recent projects include Less is More. More or Less, Sarah Scout Presents (Melbourne/Naarm), The Fashion Edit, The University of Auckland (Auckland/ Tāmaki Makaurau), Ready-To-Wear, KINGS Artist Run (Melbourne/Naarm) and Collaged Clothes, The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Boras, (Boras). Recent text-based publications and papers include Fashion Text Collaborative Glossary (Viscose Journal), Deletion Dressing (Radical Fashion Excercises), The Fashion Apparatus (The Sixteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society) and The Fashion Edit (Context Journal). 

Andrea Eckersley is the Higher Degrees by Research Delegated Authority (HDR DA) in the School of Fashion and Textiles in the College of Design and Social Context. She is an artist and creative practice researcher working at the intersection of painting, fashion and design. 

Grounded in contemporary social theory and creative practice, Andrea’s research and teaching emphasises the construction and exhibition of new forms (garments and paintings), as a means of interrogating the affective and embodied experience of place, identity and community. These themes are canvassed in her scholarly publications and are the focus of her exhibition practice. Andrea is the art editor at the Deleuze and Guattari Studies Journal and has exhibited at Alta Forma, Sarah Scout Presents, Mejia, Platform Public Contemporary Art Spaces, Anna Pappas Gallery, Nellie Castan Gallery, Craft Victoria, c3 and West Space in Melbourne.

LAURA GARDNER is an academic and practitioner in the field of fashion communication and media. Her research and project focus on the histories, politics and practices of experimental fashion publishing. This includes a book she is currently working on, Marginal Fashion Publishing: Tactics, Practices and Market Forces (Bloomsbury, 2025), which surveys alternative publishing in fashion since the 1990s. She is also co-editor of Radical Fashion Exercises: a workbook of modes and methods, with Dr Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran and published by Valiz, founder of the small-press imprint Mode and Mode and works as a freelance editor, writer and curator.

Dr Julie Gork is Lecturer in the School of Fashion and Textiles. She is a fashion studies scholar whose research broadly explores bodies and society, with a focus on sensory knowledge, diversity and disability.

Julie is the co-founder of the SENSE: Research and Education Network for Sensory, Inclusive, and Critical Fashion Practices and is currently working on a book about fashion and the sensory knowledge of blindness. She has 7 years industry experience as a fashion trend forecaster and design coordinator.

Dr. Tarryn Handcock is a cross-disciplinary designer, artist and fashion academic whose creative practice research explores how artefacts and materials, knowledges and experiences are produced through relationships within particular sites, spaces and places. 

Tarryn's site-specific practice brings together embodied and situated approaches to address qualities of ‘wear and where’. Current work investigates making, walking, gardening and curating as methods to reveal relational networks, enable urban citizenry and knowledge sharing, for the benefit of human and more-than-human communities and cultures in place. Projects include 'Growing Waa Weelum', which proposes the value of plant dye gardens for growing biodiversity, cultural awareness, and environmenal responsibility in tertiary fashion and textiles education.

Dr Jon Hewitt is a Lecturer in RMIT's School of Fashion and Textiles. With over 15 years of industry experience within the fashion sector in design, PR management, wholesale, and consultancy Jon's academic research interests include the marketing practices of social enterprises (based in the fashion sector), marketing sustainable fashion, and consumer behaviour. His most recent published work is “Fashionable Altruism: The marketing of fashion-based social enterprise” published in “Social Enterprise Journal” (2024).

Dr Saniyat Islam is an Associate professor in Fashion Enterprise at the School of Fashion and Textiles. His key research expertise is in Textile Materials and Polymer Science. The research record of accomplishment ranges from delivering and conducting interdisciplinary projects in automotive textiles, medical textiles, Safety garments and thermal and comfort properties of textile and fibrous materials. His current research focuses on Circular Business models, Blockchain innovation for Fashion Enterprises, sustainable textile materials, and supply-chain traceability of fashion systems.

Saniyat’s contributions to the discipline of fashion enterprise occur through the interlacing of the Engagement, Education and Research domains. He firmly believes that imaginative and rigorous teaching is at the core of transformative student experience. MC213: Master of Fashion (Entrepreneurship), more colloquially referred to as ‘MoFE’, was the only Master course in the world to offer graduate students a place to undertake research practices with a high degree of competency and learn enterprising capabilities to create and build their own fashion ventures with confidence. Saniyat uses the best teaching knowledge and digital technology, contemporary theory and practice, and in addition, he utilises his scholarly engagement with professional bodies and industry, to provide transformative experiences for his students.

His teaching practices are shaped by insights and evidence from his students, industry and peer feedback and he takes pride in his teaching practices which are grounded in creative thinking, connected to the textile industry, fashion enterprise and the broader community. He encourages students to be ambitious and passionate, skilled at putting theory into practice with real-life scenarios from the industry. His distinctive pedagogical approach of connected pathways to the fashion and textile industry enables them to be effective communicators with cross-cultural skills ready to collaborate anywhere within the fashion industry. Saniyat is proud of his contribution to student-centred teaching practices and agile ways of working. He has been instrumental in making the Master of Fashion Entrepreneurship one of the top ten programs of its kind globally (BoF).

As one of the research leads in the School of Fashion and Textiles, he strives to create an inclusive cultural and social environment that exceeds obligations and equips students for life and work in a diverse global environment. He combines scholarly rigour, belonging excellence and industry practice to support his students as they explore new perspectives and opportunities while applying themselves to the realities of the world as it is today. His students continuously question ethical and sustainable practices within fashion enterprises. They are engaged in finding innovative approaches to resolve issues, making them ready for life and work.

Saniyat’s textile materials and fashion systems expertise enables him to bring industry and enterprise connections to classroom settings. He focuses on building stronger connections between research knowledge, curriculum design, teaching and assessment strategies. He uses RMIT’s global reach and knowledge to enrich the student experience by organising impactful study tours. His partnerships and scholarly investments reflect his global outlook and determination in deepening the impact of RMIT’s expertise and comparative advantage, translating these into research income and outputs. Invested in the cultivation of long-term partnerships with global fashion corporations in the fashion and textile supply chain alliances, he reaches into networks of small and medium enterprises, to global collaborations supporting workforce development through his contribution as an educator and a researcher and shapes the future of fashion industry.

Industry experience:
Dr Saniyat has successfully secured and completed contract research projects based on industry needs and turned my own research into licenced applications with industry partners. Building on his PhD research, in 2015 he applied for post-doctoral funding and was successful in achieving an industry grant, project titled “Application of hemp and hemp-blends as wound bandages utilising biopolymers”, CI, $31,250, (Cat2), 2015, Project Ref: 0200313632. This also led to an IP License Deed, re TCI project Application of hemp and hemp-blends as wound bandages using biopolymers (Ref: 0000016036). As a result of the successful completion of the project, he was invited to present at the first Australian Industrial Hemp Conference, 27 February-2 March 2018 (AgriFutures Australia publication, no. 18/017; AgriFutures Australia project, no. PRJ-010776) which involved more than 250 stakeholders from industry and academia.

In 2015, Saniyat was instrumental in an industry project sponsored by Metro Trains Melbourne, which investigated the compliance of safety vests in the railway industry. This project resulted in a publication titled, 'Degradation of fluorescent high-visibility colours used in safety garments for the Australian railway industry' in Journal of Safety Research, Elsevier. The investigation highlighted a fundamental flaw in the standard adopted by the Railway industry and argued the relevance of the adopted standard. This work has significant implications outside the rail industry for any manufacturer making personnel protective equipment. The research highlights the issues surrounding the longevity and appropriateness of safety colours for the general populous (e.g., rail, road, and building workers; and cyclists). Following this publication, he was invited to be a member of the Standards Committee of CS-004 labelling of Textiles run by the Standards Australia and serving to date.

Awards:
RMIT University Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence Award (College of Design and Social Context, School of Fashion and Textiles)
Mr Saniyat Islam investigated wound-dressing developed from wool and wool blends using different techniques such as pad-dry-cure, electrospraying and dissolution – regeneration. Bio-active and absorbent wound-dressing materials were engineered utilising biopolymer and nanoparticle additives. Morphological, structural, chemical characteristics of the fabricated dressing materials were determined.
Award date: 2012
Recipients: Saniyat Islam

DR TASSIA JOANNIDES is an interdisciplinary artist and academic, working across the fields of art and fashion. Tassia holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Art from RMIT and is currently the Associate Dean Design in the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT. Their research explores representations and experiences of gendered and sexualised bodies that sit within social and cultural contexts. Tassia's work aims to contribute to wider discourse on diversity, inclusion and equity through practices of sculpture, performance, and wearable objects, and to provide opportunities for sharing, connection, empathy and understanding. They have exhibited broadly both locally and internationally, and are a founding member of Triple F+ Collective, a group of culturally diverse artists working across countries and disciplines exploring female(+) identity through expressions of feminism, femininity and female sexuality. She lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

Gareth Kershaw is a lecturer in fashion technology, a practised-based researcher, and the author of an internationally recognised book on pattern cutting for menswear.

His research explores the intersection of technical garment design and functional applications, with a particular focus on advanced materials and innovative fabrication techniques.

Dr Alice Lewis is a landscape architecture educator and researcher whose work explores material landscape legacies. Through design-led inquiry, architectural forensics, and speculative, future-focused mapping and visualisation, her research reveals how extractive industries, consumer culture, and global systems of trade and waste leave lasting physical, ecological, cultural, and political imprints on landscapes. Her teaching and research investigate novel applications of landscape architectural knowledge in response to urgent planetary challenges. She has exhibited and published internationally.

Key projects:

Mapping Textile Terrains: Charting the hidden landscapes of textile waste across the global south (2025-ongoing)

EIP-supported collaboration with RMIT Fashion & Textiles, and RMIT Law.

The Textile Terrains research project combines interdisciplinary expertise, open-source investigation, and spatial visualisation to reveal the hidden social and environmental costs of the transnational second-hand clothing (SHC) trade. Each year, millions of tonnes of worn clothing flow from the Global North to Africa and other regions of the Global South, often under the premise of reuse. However, the sheer volume of imports overwhelms local markets and frequently results in illegal dumping, generating new and hazardous terrains of textile waste along riverbeds, wetlands, and coastlines. Building on a 2024 pilot study, the project traces the potential contribution of Australian SHC to environmentally compromised landscapes across Accra, Ghana, exposing the territorial consequences of global consumption and advocating for regulatory reform.

Research team: Dr Alice lewis, Prof Alice Payne, Prof Shelley Marshall, Dr Yazid Ninsalam, Dr Lydia Manieson, Dr Yassie Samie, Paige Street. 

Reimagining Birrarung — NGV Australia, 2024/25
Exhibiting Designer, with BUSH Projects

Alice Lewis was invited to contribute to Reimagining Birrarung, the major summer exhibition at NGV Australia (2024/25), as part of the BUSH Projects team. The exhibition brought together nine landscape architecture practices to imagine the future of Melbourne’s main river, the Birrarung, 50 years from now.

The provocation developed by the team proposed the establishment of the Birrarung Bio-Zone in 2070—an ecologically protected habitat created following the public acquisition of private agricultural land along the upper Birrarung floodplain. Drawing on LiDAR scans and computer-generated sequences to reveal millennia of river movement, the work explored how the Bio-Zone could be maintained and accessed through speculative maps, equipment, and landscape plans.

The exhibition critically engaged with contemporary policies and challenges shaping the river catchment and was supported by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. It received coverage in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and other national media. It also recieved the AILA Victoria Award for Excellence in Research, Policy Communication 2025.

Material Mapping: Fashion Fictions — Vancouver Art Gallery, 2023
Participatory Drawing Project, with Material Matters (Emily Carr University of Art and Design)

Alice Lewis was invited by the Material Matters research hub to contribute to Lab Here//To//For, a participatory component of the Fashion Fictions exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2023). Her project engaged material designers and the public in a collective mapping process, using base-map templates and prompt-based questions to trace the hidden impacts of material extraction.

Through guided map-making, participants explored the ecological entanglements, colonial histories, and production processes underpinning material use in the fashion industry. The work aimed to cultivate material consciousness by revealing how extractive legacies continue to shape environments.

The project has since been presented at the ECLAS Conference (2024), featured in the Landscape Economy Handbook for Education, and published in Radical Fashion Exercises (Valiz, 2023).

Possibilities in Motion — One By Walking Symposium, Finland, 2023
Mapping Installation and Walking Workshop

Developed in response to an invitation from the steering committee of the One By Walking international research network, this project was presented at their 2023 symposium in Korpo, Finland. The work investigates how mapping practices can reveal entangled human and geologic temporalities, and how cartographic tools might be reimagined to challenge human exceptionalism.

Focusing on Glacial Isostatic Adjustment in the Finnish Archipelago, the project combined diagrams, cartographic projections, and a participatory walking activity that traced the geologic shifts occurring during attendees’ lifetimes. In doing so, it drew attention to the overlapping scales and durations of human and earth processes.

This work is published as ‘Possibilities in Motion: Prosthetic Maps and Micro-Walks for Tectonic Encounters’ in One By Walking: Transdisciplinary Mobilities and Methodologies (Lexington Books, 2025).

Awards:

2025 RMIT Vice-Chanellor's Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning

2025 AILA Victoria Award for Excellence (Research, Policy and Communication)

2024 RMIT DSC Teaching Excellence Award

2016 Australian Postgraduate Award
2014 Australian Cycling Promotion Fund – Reignition for Innovation

Dr Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran is an Iranian Canadian academic and designer. She is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She spent ten years studying and working in Tokyo, where she learned about Japanese fashion and traditional craft practices.  In her research and design practice she works with garments/products made from handmade paper and explores what materials and relationships can emerge in communities of human and nonhuman people. Daphne has completed research fellowships for the British Museum, the Australian Museum, and the International Specialized Skills Institute to research the use of paper for clothing in Japan and the Pacific Islands, as well as recycling used clothing into paper. She is co-editor of Radical Fashion Exercises: a workbook of modes and methods, with Dr Laura Gardner and published by Valiz. She co-runs a creative research practice called DNJ Paper which explores the use of paper for clothing and design objects.