Caroline is a part time lecturer on the BA (Hons) Fashion Design course. She also supervises students on MA Creative Practice.
She completed her Masters at the Royal College of Art and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Prior to teaching Caroline’s fashion experience is within womenswear as a designer
Alongside garment design her specialism is hand drawn fashion illustration. The majority of her commissioned illustration has been for the trend forecasting industry.
Since 2003 Caroline has taught across many aspects of the fashion programme at Leeds Arts University both in a full and part time capacity; presently focused on creative visual research, drawing for fashion, conceptual design development and final year portfolio modules.
In 2016 she curated an internationally peer reviewed exhibition at the University titled ‘The Radical Decade.’ This exhibition presented the work of the influential fashion designer Gerald McCann, the dynamic social, cultural and political changes in the 1960s and their impact on fashion.
Works on display acknowledged McCann’s impact on the British Fashion Industry and his design influence in New York.
In response to this exhibition Caroline presented her research to date at the first fashion symposium to be held at Leeds Arts University.
This was followed with an academic paper, Gerald McCann: The Rediscovery of a Fashion Designer, published in Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society, volume 52, number 1, March 2018; exploring further the impact of her research and how students engaged with the use of archives through her teaching.
She has passionately taught fashion students drawing from life throughout her teaching career. Her current academic research explores the ‘preservation of drawing within Fashion Design education’.
Caroline’s fashion practice explores a mixed media methodology, exploring a fine art approach to fashion illustration. Routed in ‘Art School’ life drawing principles, the artist’s work can be described as hand drawn, figurative, painterly and suitable for trend, editorial, backstage and runway.
Caroline is a professional member of FIDA worldwide; recent imagery reached the final of the 4th FIDA Awards 2021.
The artist exhibits her works through various exhibitions held at the Virgil Catherine Gallery, Illinois, USA.
Her Alexander McQueen painting and other contemporary fashion drawings were curated within the Fashion Gallery at the Bankfield Museum Halifax UK as part of the Belonging Fashion & A Sense of Place exhibition.
Articles
Almond, K. and Riches, C. (2018) ‘Gerald McCann: the rediscovery of a fashion designer’, The Journal of the Costume Society, 52 (1), pp. 97-122.
Books Including Artwork
‘The Fible – part 2’ The Fashion Illustration Bible. Due for publication March 2022.
Online Publications
LFW E-Magazine 2021: A collection of drawings for London Fashion Week. www.Issuu.com
Exhibitions
(2022) C/OVERT Observations. Virgil Catherine Gallery in Illinois, USA. March 1 - April 2022.
(2021) The intersection of Art and Fashion. Virgil Catherine Gallery in Illinois, USA. August 17 - September 17 2021.
(2021) BELONGING Fashion & a Sense of Place. Bankfield Museum. Halifax. September 18 2021 - March 2022.
(2021) Fidarts Fashion Illustration Virtual Art Fair. October 13 - 31 December 2021.
Riches, C. (2016) The Radical Decade. Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds Arts University. 7 October – 16 December 2016.