Visiting Lecturer Central Saint Martins, London
Since 2023, I’ve regularly worked as a visiting lecturer on the Art Direction for Fashion short course at Central Saint Martins, led by Shelay Mc Carter — and honestly, these teaching sessions have become some of my favourite moments of the year.
The course brings together international students from across the world, all arriving with completely different creative backgrounds, perspectives, and ambitions. One of the things I love most is hearing each student’s ideas develop and seeing how differently people interpret image-making, storytelling, and visual culture.
“As art directors, we are responsible for the direction of art — and with that comes responsibility.”
For me, “art direction” should also mean directing art — and the industry itself — towards something better.
That includes creating a fashion world that is greener, fairer, more inclusive, and more representative. Throughout my teaching, I encourage students to think critically about authorship, ethics, representation, environmental responsibility, and the emotional impact of visual culture alongside aesthetics and technical execution.
Alongside portfolio reviews and mentoring sessions, I also give talks sharing my own journey through photography, filmmaking, creative direction, and campaigning work. Having worked internationally across fashion, editorial, advertising, exhibitions, and activist-led creative projects for over twenty years, I try to offer students an honest insight into both the creative and practical realities of working in the industry today.
Over the years, I’ve also been invited to speak and lecture on subjects including female entrepreneurship, photography, the female gaze, sustainability within creative industries, activism and storytelling, and building a career with purpose-led creative practice at its centre.
Teaching and mentoring have become an increasingly important part of my work, and I’m always interested in opportunities to collaborate with universities, art schools, organisations, and creative programmes internationally through lectures, workshops, mentoring, portfolio reviews, and guest speaking.
2 Comments
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Kent
So inspiring hear you talk about your experience in the fashion industry.
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Birgitta
The discussion about sustainability and fashion is incredibly important to take into the classroom. Fashion does have a responsibility to do better especially with its strong influence over young people.