Gayle Cantrell

My live student project with size? asked students to design and plan promotional campaigns and activations for brands including Salomon, New Balance, Vans and Converse, leading to five national awards and two student projects rolled out as national campaigns. I have mentored students to success in national and international awards and competitions, including Creative Conscience, The Orange Student Design Prize and Graduate Fashion Week.

 My commitment to driving social equity is embedded in my research and practice, which focuses on addressing inequalities and opening up opportunities for engagement with the HE sector. As a member of the Academic Team for CHASE (Centre for Health and Social Equity), and the activist group Fashion Act Now, my primary interest is in how we can embed social equity into the curriculum, and use fashion education as a force for good.

I was invited to collaborate with UAL and the British Fashion Council on the Northeast Project: a research initiative looking at diversifying fashion education and aspirations into the arts outside of London through exploring regional initiatives, to enable young creatives to have stable careers in fashion and the arts across the UK. This research led to the publication of an article in a special issue of DISCERN: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, outlining our collaboration with schools and community groups; the potential for digital fashion for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds; encouraging localised fashion through repair hubs, rebuilding creative communities through a reuse, recycle approach. 

I have collaborated with colleagues at Northumbria on the Chopwell Regeneration Group Repair Hub Project, exploring the potential of community-based participatory research to identify, develop and promote innovative approaches to responsible fashion practice, in line with UN Sustainability goals. This, and the Belonging project, explored how to “Shift the Fashion Narrative”, using creative styling techniques to disrupt the perception and consumption of fashion, using pre-loved garments to encourage reflection on circularity and personal style. This collaborative project demonstrated how a community can contribute to a local circular economy and engage in a practical way by minimising waste and turning a disposable culture into a positive approach to social change based on communal action.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• The decentralisation of fashion education in Northeast England through collaborative practice between education, communities and industry, Cantrell, G., Yates, B., Hugill, L., Wetherell, S., Barrett, J., Murray, S. 29 May 2024, In: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship DISCERN

• Arts (general) MRes December 05 2017
• Education PGDip June 14 2013
• Psychology DipHE June 13 2008
• Fashion Design BA (Hons) June 15 1996
• Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2013