Ana is a part time senior lecturer on the BA (Hons) Fashion Branding with Communication course. She obtained a first honour MA in Design from the School of Design at the University of Leeds. Prior to that, she graduated from Leeds Arts University with a BA (Hons) fashion and clothing. Ana’s experience within the fashion industry includes working for various high-street fashion brands in retail, visual merchandising, styling and as a fashion buyer, gaining valuable experience within a fashion business, product development managing and overseeing designs from initial concept to production and marketing, in the UK and overseas.
Ana gained a PGCE in 2010 and has taught across all levels on fashion design, fashion communication, retailing and marketing courses run by the Leeds Metropolitan University now known as Leeds Beckett University and Hull College group.
Prior to embarking on a teaching career, Ana was also involved in launching franchise flagships for Mango stores around Europe, training and developing staff on the company’s structures including merchandising and space management requirements.
Her valuable and varied experience within the fashion industry enables her to ensure that her teaching is relevant to the industry which enhances the student learning experience and opens a wider learning opportunity.
In her current role delivering the Fashion Branding with communication course, her responsibilities include module development, the teaching and assessment of creative research, conceptual development of design ideas through to a material outcome and portfolio work. Her current role also involves pastoral care for level 4 students supporting them in their first year of study. Ana’s areas of specialism are fashion communication and promotion, conceptual design processes, design development through to realisation, design practice and research methods for design in higher education and student portfolio development.
In her teaching practice Ana emphasises design innovation, utilising contemporary design research creating real life scenarios merging fashion with design and graphics as a tangible outcome.
Her current research focuses on Sustainability within Fashion, in particular the responses of young consumers on sustainable fashion, utilising collaborative methods to broaden awareness of ethical issues and create discussions and interaction through design solutions.
Articles
Perez, A. and Lonsdale, M. (2018) ‘Garment label design and companion information to communicate fashion sustainability issues to young consumers’, Visible Language: the journal of visual communication research, 52 (3), pp. 115-139.