Professor Liz Barnes

Professor/Head of Manchester Fashion Institute

Professor Liz Barnes

Professor/Head of Manchester Fashion Institute

Email: l.barnes@mmu.ac.uk

Telephone: 0161 247 1890

Academic and professional qualifications

Liz graduated with BSc (Hons) Management & Marketing of Textiles from the Department of Textiles at UMIST in 1997. She undertook a PhD in design management, innovation and product development graduating from the University of Manchester in 2004 and completed a PGCert in Higher Education at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005.  

Previous Employment

Liz has held a number of appointments in higher education, having previously worked at the University of Manchester, Edge Hill University and an earlier appointment at Manchester Metropolitan University. Prior to her work in HE Liz worked in various marketing roles in a number of UK and European consumer product and fashion companies.  

Academic service (administration and management)

Liz is currently the Head of Manchester Fashion Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University and has held a number of leadership positions in HE. 

From 2010-2019 Liz was a divisional leader of the Design & Fashion Business activity in the School of Materials at the University of Manchester where she provided leadership and management across the whole discipline. From 2015-2019 Liz was also an Associate Dean for Teaching & Learning in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, across the 9 Schools of the Faculty, where a key feature of the role was to lead on TEF preparation activity.

Prior to this, Liz has been, amongst other things, a Programme Leader, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Admissions Lead, Employability Lead, Director of Teaching & Learning.   

Liz has also led on a range of teaching innovation projects including embedding employability in the curriculum (Brand Me), development of collaborative online assessment tools and the development and implementaiton of a new personal tutoring system. 

Postgraduate research supervision

Liz is an experienced supervisor for PGT and PGR candidates (MEnt, MPhil, PhD and DBA). She has 16 PGR completions (as of December 2019) and continues to supervise PGR students. 

External examiner roles

Liz is an experienced external examiner (UG, PGT and PGR) and panel member (validation and quality). Current and recent appointments include:

PGR - University of Huddersfield, Glasgow Caledonia University, University of Boras

PGT - York St John University (London Campus), Notingham Trent University

UG - University of Winchester, University of Leicester, London College of Fashion, Regents University, University of Westminster

Impact and influence on policy

Liz was an Adviser on the Manchester Alliance Project (regional economic development project for the Greater Manchester region) which involved negotiating with external stakeholders and providing expert input to the project. Results of this project were presented at Parliament to the (then) Department for Business Innovation and Skills and as part of the Northern Powerhouse initiative and have been used in the development and regeneration of the textiles industry in Greater Manchester and beyond.  

Editiorial Board membership

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management

Textile Progress

Research

Research Interests

Liz's expertise relates to issues of fashion production and consumption. Recent research has explored fast fashion, omnichannel consumer behaviour, luxury fashion and social media marketing. Liz has published extensively in this field and is regularly invited to present on these themes across the world.
Some of her early fashion marketing research focused on fast fashion, examining the concept as the fashion retail sector in the UK shifted to respond to changing competition and supply chain structures in the early 2000s. As a result of this work, Liz co-authored a seminal paper titled 'Fast fashioning the supply chain: shaping the research agenda' which has 807 citations (as of January 2024), and jointly guest edited two special 'fast fashion' issues of the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management in 2005, and again in 2013, demonstrating the continued interest in the subject. Fast fashion remains topical although much of the debate is now focused on the sustainability challenges associated with fast fashion, and Liz remains an authority on the topic, and is regularly asked to contribute to media articles on the subject.

Academic collaborations

Liz has collaborations with academics from:

University of Leeds

The University of Manchester

Nottingham Trent University

Glasgow Caledonia University

London College of Fashion

University of Malaysia

Winchester University

Rutgers University

Invited Papers

Barnes, L. (2013) ‘Fashion Marketing’ Textile Progress 45(2) 182-207

McCormick, H., Barnes, L., Cartwright, J., Perry, P. & Lynch, S. (2014) ‘Fashion Retailing Past, Present & Future’ Textile Progress 46(3) 227-321

Expert reviewer for journals and publishers

Liz reviews for a number of publishers. 

She has been a Member of the Editorial Board of The Textile Institute's research review journal, Textile Progress, since 2013, and is the author/co-author of its two most-highly read issues. She is also on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. 

Liz also regularly reviews for journals including:

• International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management (since 2010)
• The Journal of the Textile Institute (since 2008)
• Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services (since 2012)

Liz regularly reviws for the following conferences:

• Academy of Marketing (since 2014)
• British Academy of Management (since 2008)
• European Institute of Retailing and Services Studies (since 2006)
• Textile Institute World Conference (since 2008)
• International Colloquium of Design, Branding and Marketing (since 2012)
• International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (since 2015)

and for the following academic publishers:

• City U Press, Hong Kong
• Berg, UK
• Wiley-Blackwell, UK
• Palgrave-MacMillan
 

Grants

Liz is a Project Lead/Co-I for the NERC funded Back to Baselines in Circular Fashion and Textiles 

Book Chapters

Perry, P., Barnes, L., Ye, T., 2020. 'The Evolution of the Chinese Luxury Fashion Consumer: An Interpretive Study of Luxury Value Perceptions'. In Cantista, I., Sádaba, T. (eds.) Palgrave Advances in Luxury, pp. 175-202, Springer International Publishing.

Zhou, S., McCormick, H., Blazquez, M., Barnes, L., 2019. 'eWOM: The Rise of the Opinion Leaders'. In Social Commerce, pp. 189-212, Springer International Publishing.

Barnes, L., Lea-Greenwood, G., 2018. 'Pre-loved? Analysing the Dubai Luxe Resale Market'. In Palgrave Advances in Luxury, pp. 63-78, Springer International Publishing.

Rashid, A., Barnes, L., 2017. 'Country of Origin: Reshoring Implication in the Context of the UK Fashion Industry'. In Reshoring of Manufacturing, pp. 183-201, Springer International Publishing.

Journal Articles

Rashid, A., Barnes, L., 2021. 'Exploring the blurring of fashion retail and wholesale brands from industry perspectives', The Journal of The Textile Institute, 112 (3), pp. 370-376.

Lynch, S., Barnes, L., 2020. 'Omnichannel fashion retailing: examining the customer decision-making journey', Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 24 (3), pp. 471-493.

Parker-Strak, R., Barnes, L., Studd, R., Doyle, S., 2020. 'Disruptive product development for online fast fashion retailers', Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 24 (3), pp. 517-532.

Rashid, A., Barnes, L., 2018. 'Country of Origin Association in Retail and Wholesale Branding', Journal of Promotion Management, 24 (3), pp. 312-331.

Barnes, E., 2014. 'Fashion Marketing', Textile Progress.

Barnes, L., Lea-Greenwood, G., 2013. 'Fast fashion: a second special issue', Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 17 (2), pp. 73-87.

Zarley Watson, M., Yan, R., 2013. 'An exploratory study of the decision processes of fast versus slow fashion consumers', Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 17 (2), pp. 141-159.

Barnes, L., Lea‐Greenwood, G., 2010. 'Fast fashion in the retail store environment', International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 38 (10), pp. 760-772.

Barnes, L., Lea-Greenwood, G., 2006. 'Guest editorial', Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 10 (3).

Barnes, L., Lea‐Greenwood, G., 2006. 'Fast fashioning the supply chain: shaping the research agenda', Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 10 (3), pp. 259-271.

Conference Papers

Zhou, S., Barnes, E., Blazquez, M., McCormick, H., 2019. 'What and How to Talk: The Value of Fashion Opinion Leaders’ Narrative Strategies in Cultivating eWOM Marketing', Global Fashion Marketing Conference (GAMMA), Paris, 11/7/2019 - 14/7/2019.

Zhou, S., McCormick, H., Blazquez, M., Barnes, E., 2019. 'From a Marketing Communication Perspective to Identify Fashion Opinion Leaders’ Narrative Strategies to Create eWOM: A Theoretical and Methodological Contribution', Academy of Marketing Conference, Regent's University London, 2/7/2019 - 4/7/2019.

Zhou, S., McCormick, H., Barnes, E., Blazquez, M., 2018. 'How Opinion Leaders Persuade Consumers: Fashion Opinion Leaders’ Narrative Strategies for Creating eWOM on Chinese Social Media', International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI), Shanghai, China, 9/4/2018 - 12/4/2018.

Zhou, S., McCormick, H., Blazquez, M., Barnes, E., 2017. 'An investigation of the effects of opinion leaders' narrative strategies on consumer purchase intention through social media', 3/7/2017 - 6/7/2017.

Office Location

Room RG.08
Righton Building
Manchester Fashion Institute
Manchester Metropolitan University
Cavendish Street
Manchester M15 6BG