Research & Insights
My research examines fashion as a cultural, economic and global system, with particular attention to consumer cultures, modest fashion, creative economies, sustainability and markets beyond dominant Western contexts.
Alongside academic research, I translate this work into industry-facing insights on consumers, cultural change and emerging fashion markets.
Research & Insights
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
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.
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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.
Research Focus
Fashion, Culture & Identity
Dress, modest fashion, religion, identity and cultural representation.
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Global Fashion Systems & Markets
Fashion economies and consumer cultures beyond dominant Western markets.
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Consumer Culture & Cultural Insight
How consumers interpret fashion, brands, identity and value across different cultural contexts.
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Craft, Heritage & Sustainability
Traditional textiles, craft economies, sustainability, market access and questions of value and equity.
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Creative Industries & Knowledge Production
Creative economies, research practices, institutional power and the production of expertise.
Selected Research Projects
Crafting Sustainability and Equitability: India
UK–India collaborative research examining craft economies, sustainability, market relationships and changing routes to market.
Modest Fashion & Muslim Consumer Cultures
Research on modest fashion, consumption, identity and fashion markets across Türkiye and transnational contexts.
Fashion Knowledge and Authority
Research examining whose knowledge becomes recognised and authoritative within fashion and creative-industry settings.
