Dr Zhe Wang
Senior Lecturer, Fashion Art Direction
I’m a Senior Lecturer in Fashion Art Direction, working across the Fashion Communication and Fashion Business department. I joined MFI in 2020, teaching both UG and PG programmes, and supervising PG research students.
Before joining MFI, I had my Design Ph.D. awarded by the College of Art, the University of Edinburgh in July 2020.
Academic and professional qualifications
- Ph.D. in Design (Design Culture Research). University of Edinburgh, College of Art 01/2015-09/2019
Thesis: Re-shaping Innovations in the Contemporary Fashion Show: Emerging Chinese Designers in the Global Fashion Ecosystem
Supervisors: Professor. Craig Martin, Professor Christopher Breward, Mr. Mal Burkinshaw
Examiners: Dr. Wessie Ling, Dr. Rachel Joy Harkness - University of Arts London, Curating Contemporary Art. Professional Training Course (25/03/2019-29/03/2019)
- MSc in Design and Digital Media, University of Edinburgh, UK, 09/2013-11/2014
- MSc Management, Wuhan University, China, 09/2011-06/2013
Editiorial Board membership
- Editorial Board for Fashion, Style and Popular Culture
Undergraduate teaching
BA Fashion Promotion:
L4: Visual Communication 1; Showcase
L6: Visual Practice 1
BA Fashion Art Direction:
L4: Scoping; UnitX
L5: Anticipating
Postgraduate teaching
MSc Business of Luxury
MA Fashion Buying and Merchandising Management
MA Fashion and Business
Postgraduate research supervision
- MPhil and PhD Supervision Available
Research
Research Interests
My research interests lie in a number of interdisciplinary fields, covering the ethnographies of global fashion culture, fashion communication and international brand management (especially for emerging brands), digital fashion culture, fashion theatre and performance, design anthropology, innovation design, the global fashion cities, creative labour, and creative cultural industry.
Grants
UCRKE Research Grants: Aesthetic Revolutions in China’s Contemporary Fashion in the 21st Century.
Projects and initiatives
Wang, Z., Griffin, A., and Xu, J., 2023 to 2025, From Appropriation to Authenticity: Struggles and Strategies in International Luxury Branding in China.
Exhibitions
- Curator, Nov. 2017-July 2018, International Touring Exhibition:‘Beauty by Design: Fashioning the Renaissance’at Shanghai Museum of Textile and Costume.
Books
Wang, Z., Wang, Z., 2023. 'Wang, Z., 2023, The Style Evolution of Paris Fashion Illustration in the Early 20th Century, China, Beijing, Hina Book Publication.'.
Internet Publications
Wang, Z., 2022. 'Ethnicity in Theatrical Fashion Shows: Chinoiserie in Galliano’s work for Christian Dior', https://www.bloomsburyfashioncentral.com/article?docid=b-9781350926899&tocid=b-9781350926899-007&st=zhe+wang.
Wang, Z., 2022. 'The Evolution of Futurism and Sci-fi Fashion from the 1990s: Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Hussein Chalayan and the Emerging Generation of Chinese CG Fashion and Metaverse Designer', https://www.bloomsburyfashioncentral.com/article?docid=b-9781350926899&tocid=b-9781350926899-004&st=zhe+wang.
Wang, Z., 2022. 'Aesthetic Revolutions in the ‘Designerscape Era’ since 1970s and Influences on the Emerging Generation of Chinese Designers', https://www.bloomsburyfashioncentral.com/article?docid=b-9781350926899&tocid=b-9781350926899-006&st=zhe+wang.
Journal Articles
Wang, Z., 2025. 'Navigating Chinaverse Futurism: Post-human Aesthetics and Cultural Landscape in Digital Fashion Showcases', Fashion Practice: the journal of design, creative process and the fashion industry.
Wang, Z., Xu, Y.J., 2023. 'Digitised Fashion Shows and Fashion Weeks in the COVID-19 and Post-COVID-19 Era: The Changing Formats and Meanings of Communicating Fashion', Fashion Practice: the journal of design, creative process and the fashion industry.
Wang, Z., 2022. 'Re-shaping Innovations in the Contemporary Fashion Show: emerging aesthetics and the rising international-based Chinese designer collective', Design and Culture, 14 (3), pp. 315-340.
Wang, Z., 2022. 'Implementation of Chinese-styled branding in global fashion: 'Guochao' as a rising cultural identity', Fashion, Style and Popular Culture, 9 (1-2), pp. 149-183.
Wang, Z., 2020. 'Shanghai Fashion Week: A Socially Engaging Mass Entertainment', ZoneModa, pp. 283-307.
Presentations
Wang, Z., 2022. 'Re-imagining Chinese Artisan Fashion in the Digital Age: New Creative Cultural Preservation and Globalisation', ABERDEEN.
Wang, Z., 2022. 'Digitised Fashion Shows and Fashion Weeks in the COVID-19 and Post-COVID-19 Era: The Changing Formats and Meanings of Mediating Fashion', Nottingham, UK.
Wang, Z., 2018. 'An anti-elitism ideology in the new generation of Chinese independent designers: the multi-dimensional design identities and their survival in today’s heteronomous fashion industry', Rome.
Wang, Z., 2018. 'Shanghai Fashion Week: A Socially Engaging Mass Entertainment'.
Posters
Wang, Z., Anze, E., 2023. 'Exploring Exhibition Designs in Fashion and Art Design Education: Enhancing Experiential Learning Outcomes in the Post- pandemic Era', GLAD Symposium 2023: Gathering Ourselves, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Office Location
Room C.2.24
Cavendish South
Manchester Fashion Institute
Manchester Metropolitan University
Cavendish Street
Manchester M15 6BG