Rachel Matthews 

Rachel Matthews is a fashion educator and researcher whose work explores fashion taste-making and narratives of influence in the networked conditions of contemporary fashion media. Her research investigates the interrelations of image, object and text that shape discourse, behaviour and material outcomes in the field of fashion. Rachel trained in fashion design at Central Saint Martins before working internationally in the fashion industry as a designer and image-maker. Now living in Australia, she has a Ph.D. in fashion communication (Monash University 2017) and is Head of Fashion at Australian College of the Arts. Rachel is on the editorial board of the open-source journal Arts with research projects published in Critical Studies in Fashion and Beauty, Studies in Communication Sciences, Catwalk: Journal of Fashion Beauty and Style, Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases and readingdesign.org.

Profile image: ‘Patchwork identity’ quilt – personal project.

relevant Publications

Matthews, Rachel. (2020) Understanding ugg boots: Travels through place, space and time. Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, 11(1), 73–100. https://doi.org/10.1386/csfb_00010_1

Matthews, Rachel. (2019) Redrawing the Timeline: Teaching the History of Fashion in the Networked Conditions of the Twenty-First Century. Arts 8, no. 1: 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts8010024

Matthews, Rachel. (2018). Taste-making in turbulent times: Vogue and its social networks. Studies in Communication Sciences, 18(2), 399–410. https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2018.02.013

Matthews, Rachel. (2018) "Sneakerboy: Giving Luxury Retail a Digital Up-Grade." Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Bloomsbury Fashion Central. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474208796.0057

Matthews, Rachel. (2018) "Who Owns Genuine Ugg/UGG® Boots in the Global Footwear Marketplace?" Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases. London: Bloomsbury Academic. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474208772.004

Matthews, Rachel. (2016) Fairy tales and Fashion Criticism. Reading Design https://www.readingdesign.org/fairytales-and-fashion-criticism

Matthews, Rachel. (2015). Contemporary Fashion Tastemakers: Starting Conversations that Matter. Catwalk, 4(1), 51-70.