Staff Profile
Professor of Fashion Technologies
Academic and professional qualifications
MA Fashion Curation. London College of Fashion.
Previous Employment
Senior Research Tutor Royal College of Art.
Academic service (administration and management)
Principal Investigator Robotics Living Lab . Manchester Fashion Institute.
Director Robotics Living Lab . Manchester Fashion Institute.
Professor of Fashion Technologies.
Leader of Fashion Technologies Research Group. Manchester Fashion Institute.
Core member Human in the Loop Group. Manchester University.
AHRC Peer Review College. Panel Member.
REF 2021. Panel D. Sub-panel 32: Art and Design, History, Practice and Theory. Full Panel Member.
Policy Fellowship, Royal Academy of Engineering.
Co I. Future Fashion Factory: Digitally Enabled Design & Manufacture of Designer Products for Circular
Economies. AHRC Creative Clusters funded research project led by University of Leeds.
Editorial board member. International Journal of Sustainable Fashion and Textiles. Intellect Press.
2023 April. Exploring Creative Practice Research in Design and Design Discourse: Glasgow School of Art, School of Design.
2023 March. Central Saint Martin’s MA Fashion course revalidation - external advisor.
2023 March. Edinburgh College of Art. Internal review panel member.
Languages
limited proficiency Italian. ( Fashion related).
Postgraduate teaching
Developing a new masters course in Fashion Industry 5.0
Postgraduate research supervision
Pending.
External examiner roles
External Examiner for BA Fashion Design and Technology, School of Design and Creative Arts. Uni of Loughborough.
2024. Invited by Timo Rissanen to grade an MA dissertation from UTS.
2023 March. Leeds School of Art and Design. University of Leeds. Double curved surface composites for anthropometry-formed 3D woven apparel forms. PhD exam Dr Yuyan Shi.
2022. Swedish School of Textiles. Boras. Form-defining systems of reverse crafting. Doctoral Dissertation of Karin Peterson, Grading Committee.
Projects and initiatives
June 2024 – June 2025. Global Chair and visiting professor position attached to RoLL accepted by Jalaj Hora Nike Vice President of Product Innovation & Consumer Creation (Design, Product Development, Merchandising) and Sustainability.
Exhibitions
2018 – 2019. Burberry Material Futures Research Group. Exhibition and symposium. London Design Festival. Senior Researcher/coordinator/chair.
2024. Future Fashion Factory Dissemination Budget ( £ 40K). Commissioning x 2 films; Texprocess 23/26 April 2024-Messe Frankfurt - stand and presentation. Future Fabrics Expo June 2024- stand;
Consultancy and advisory roles
2023 April. Exploring Creative Practice Research in Design and Design Discourse: Glasgow School of Art, School of Design.
2023 March. Central Saint Martin’s MA Fashion course revalidation - external advisor.
2023 March. Edinburgh College of Art. Internal review panel member.
Government and industry links
2024- present. Advisor for Future Observatory, Design Museum, London. RoLL will contribute to a new fashion and textiles /research exhibition. Predicted audience 0.5 million.
Impact and influence on policy
2024. Workshop MTC in collaboration with UKFT/CFIN. Produce joint white paper/ advice for gov. May
2024 – present. Think Tank Erskin Analysis.Createch working group for the Coronation Challenge. The Royal Anniversary Trust has commissioned a team of Creative Industries experts to undertake a ground-breaking study into the role of tertiary education driving pioneering technologies to accelerate the growth of the UK Creative Industries sector. A yearlong initiative in partnership with DCMS as part of the UK Governments 2023 Sector Vision, a landmark investment to stimulate growth in the Creative Industries. Output will be a white paper published in 2025
Media appearances or involvement
Interview for Vogue Business -pending.
Expert reviewer for external funding bodies
AHRC Peer Review College. Panel Member.
REF 2021. Panel D. Sub-panel 32: Art and Design, History, Practice and Theory. Full Panel Member.
Editiorial Board membership
Editorial board member. International Journal of Sustainable Fashion and Textiles. Intellect Press.
Advisory board member Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education Journal. Intellect Books.
Membership of professional associations
WRAP Textiles 2030.
Design Research Society
Research
Research Interests
Director Robotics Living Lab (RoLL) Manchester Fashion Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Academic collaborations
Manufacturing Technology Centre - Coventry and Liverpool as part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC) support the Robotics Living Lab at MFI.
Invited Papers
2023. Keynote. Robotics and Automation conference. A New Perspective. Opportunities within sustainability - Role of robotics and automation within the sustainability space. Manufacturing Technology Centre. High Value Manufacturing Catapult. 10th May.
2023 14th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2023) and its affiliated conferences to be held at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, California, USA July 20-24. Human centric research of skills and decision-making capacity among technical workforce in fashion garment manufacturing to support policy development and technology acquisition for sustainable fashion/manufacturing/growth.
2022 Keynote. Robotics and Automation conference. A New Perspective. Reshoring and Automation. Manufacturing Technology Centre. High Value Manufacturing Catapult.4th May.
2022. Keynote. Exploring cobot technologies and agile tooling to aid creative garment making to improve ethics in clothing manufacture. ICRES Value – sharing between Humans and Robots conference. Seoul, South Korea. 19th July.
2022. UK Textiles Manufacturing: Opportunities and Challenges for the UK and Midlands. Published by the Industrial Policy Research Centre, Loughborough University, The Manufacturing Technology Centre, and The High Value Manufacturing Catapult. Forward and editor. UK Textiles Manufacturing opportunities and Challenges for the UK and Midlands.pdf
Invited Discussions
2024 – present. Think Tank Erskin Analysis.Createch working group for the Coronation Challenge. The Royal Anniversary Trust has commissioned a team of Creative Industries experts to undertake a ground-breaking study into the role of tertiary education driving pioneering technologies to accelerate the growth of the UK Creative Industries sector. A yearlong initiative in partnership with DCMS as part of the UK Governments 2023 Sector Vision, a landmark investment to stimulate growth in the Creative Industries. Output will be a white paper published in 2025.
2021 – present. Youth Earthshot advisor. Youth Earthshot aims to mentor speculative projects from young people which address global environmental challenges in line with the Earthshot Prize.
2024 – present. UCL Innovation Network for Fashion and Beauty. Advisor and founding member.
2024 - present. Design Council Expert Network. Member.
April 2024. - present Cotton Textiles Research Trust. Board Member.
2022 – 2025. AHRC Peer Review College. Panel Member.
Expert reviewer for journals and publishers
2022. Consultant, Creative Industries and Climate Emergency Report published by the Policy and Evidence Centre. Authors Julies Bicycle, BOP Consulting. https://pec.ac.uk/research-reports/creative-industries-and-the-climate-emergency
2023 April. Exploring Creative Practice Research in Design and Design Discourse: Glasgow School of Art, School of Design.
2023 March. Central Saint Martin’s MA Fashion course revalidation - external advisor.
2023 March. Edinburgh College of Art. Internal review panel member.
Grants
N+ Back to Baselines . NERC Funded. Led by LITAC, University of Leeds. N+ Back to baselines. Scientifically Validated Environmental and Design Baselines, Standards and Principals. B2B sub-network - part of a group of network experts. Able to apply for funding from the Plus Pot (£700k) to carry out additional activity in support of any of the thematic areas. It is a really key connecting role within the network.
2022 Robotics Living Lab (RoLL)MFI. £3.9million. Funded by AHRC. The funding will allow the repurposing of two spaces at the heart of Manchester Fashion Institute - equipping a highly visible showcase - a Robotics Living Lab (RoLL) - and a Work in Progress (WIP) space.
2022 Cotton Textiles Research Trust funding £67,320 to develop new end effector cutting tool with integrator firm POMO Robotics.
2021 - 2022 ASPECT funding in partnership with Cranfield University. A human centric research of skills and decision-making capacity among technical workforce in fashion garment manufacturing to support policy development and technology acquisition for sustainable fashion/manufacturing/growth.
2021-22 FFF call 4 micro projects:-
• Feasibility Scenarios for UK Fashion Micro Factories. Proof of concept. Industry partner Assyst Bulmer/ Roberts Wood.
• Digitoile.3D. Proof of concept. Industry partners Digitoile.3D/ Dubit Group/ Autodesk.
• Developing new models and systems for 3D design to manufacture. Proof of market. Industry partner 12Oaks
• Mykko. Mycelium Eco Leather. Proof of concept. Industry partner Burberry
2020. Design Anthropology Skills Development for Researchers. Designing Interdisciplinary Research for provocation, pedagogy and policy making. AHRC award (£100K). September 2020 - May 2021.
Book Chapters
Thiel, K., Postlethwaite, S., 2020. 'Navigating Skills Shortages: Bridging Human Factors and Fashion Practice Research for Collaborative Innovation in UK Fashion Manufacturing'. In Production Management, Manufacturing, and Process Control, Routledge.
Thiel, K., ten Bhoemer, M., Postlethwaite, S., Pollmann, A., Hoette, R., 2020. 'Breaking the script'. In Everything and everybody as material : beyond fashion design methods, The School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University and The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Boras..
Reports
Postlethwaite, S., Thiel, K., Atkinson, D., 2020. 'Reshoring UK Garment Manufacturing with Automation: Recommendations for Government', KTN Made Smarter, London.
Conference Papers
Thiel, K., Postlethwaite, S., Lean, M., 2020. 'Discourse: Debating the Future of Fashion as Design', Fashion Colloquia, Jaipur/ India.
Office Location
Room CA 2.47
Righton Building
Manchester Fashion Institute
Manchester Metropolitan University
Cavendish Street
Manchester M15 6BG