Dr. Nazlı Alimen
Bridging research and practice across fashion cultures and creative industries.
I’m an educator, researcher, and consultant specialising in fashion, consumer culture, and the creative industries. With a background in fashion, business, and cultural studies, I explore how clothing, identity, and commerce intersect across global markets.
Modest Fashion — Ottoman Dress — Sustainable Fashion — South Asian Dress — Labour and Equity — Indian Handicrafts —
My work focuses on how people use fashion to express identity, navigate politics, and shape cultural belonging—across both historical and contemporary contexts. I have a particular interest in the fashion and craft industries of the Global Majority, with ongoing research into sustainability, equity, and the impact of digital technologies.
I’ve worked with international fashion brands on modest fashion, branding strategy, and consumer engagement. I've also collaborated with artisan communities, policy bodies, and academic partners regarding transnational fashion cultures and traditional textiles and crafts.
Alongside my research, I teach at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, supervise PhD candidates, and contribute to research ethics and publishing through editorial and review roles. Whether working with students, makers, or marketers, I bring an inclusive, insight-driven approach focused on relevance and real-world impact.
Research
My research spans fashion and dress studies, cultural and creative industries, and the politics of material culture. It is grounded in interdisciplinary, ethnographic, and historically informed approaches, with a strong commitment to equity, sustainability, and global majority perspectives. Below are four key strands that define my work.
Fashion, Dress, and Identity
Visibility, belonging, and resistance
I explore how dress, adornment, and embodied practices mediate identity, politics, and belonging across historical and contemporary contexts. My research spans sartorial and bodily expressions—from Ottoman women’s ferâces and Muslim women’s veiling, to men’s facial hair, rings, and other forms of bodily adornment, as well as the dress practices of the British South Asian diaspora. Focusing on individuals and communities across the Global Majority, I investigate how these material and bodily presentations operate as sites of negotiation, visibility, resistance, and cultural continuity.
Cultural and Creative Industries in the Global South
Craft, labour and inequality
This strand focuses on gender, class, caste, and labour in cultural production, particularly within the textile and craft sectors in South Asia. I investigate how traditional industries navigate global markets, state policy, heritage discourses, and digital transformations. My research also examines the everyday work lives of artisans and how their communities sustain and adapt practices amid shifting economic, social, and cultural conditions.
Fashion Retail and Consumer Markets
Alternative economies, innovation and consumer agency
I investigate how fashion-retail ecosystems evolve in response to sociocultural changes, religious values, and shifting global markets. My work analyses consumer behaviour and retail innovation in contexts such as Glasgow’s South Asian fashion sphere, Turkey’s modest fashion sector, and community-driven, faith-based marketplaces. By examining these spaces, I show how consumers co-create value, fuel informal, local, and transnational economies, and challenge mainstream narratives about fashion and consumption in the Global South. The findings inform industry and policy debates on sustainability, inclusion, and the future of culturally embedded fashion retail.
Critical Methodologies and Research Practices
Ethics and inclusion
My work engages with the politics and ethics of researching cultural and creative industries, particularly in and with communities across the Global South and its diasporas. I have developed expertise in researching sensitive topics and working with stigmatised and marginalised groups—ranging from observant Muslim men and women in Turkey to artisan communities in India shaped by caste, class, and gender inequalities.
This strand also reflects my broader interest in qualitative methodologies, digital ethnography, and the role of editorial and curatorial practices in shaping academic and public knowledge.
Blog
Contact
I welcome enquiries about industry consultancy, media contributions, public talks, research collaborations, and PhD supervision.
