Professor Gill Stark

Gill Stark is Associate Provost, Academic, Collaborative & Industry Partnerships and Professor of Fashion. She previously held the post of Assistant Dean and Head of the School of Creative and Liberal Arts at Regent's. Under Gill’s leadership are the academic areas of Marketing & Brand Management, Liberal Arts, and Psychotherapy & Counselling. Gill is the academic lead for collaborative partnerships and for the area of careers, enterprise and industry. Gill also co-leads the University’s Strategic Project for Industry Connectivity. 

Formerly, Gill worked as Dean of Fashion and Director of Education at AIU London and in various roles at other universities, including the London College of Fashion, De Montfort University, Loughborough University and the University of Northampton. Gill has worked in the British and the American education systems and has an interest and expertise in international education. 

Gill’s background is in Art History, Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing and Business. She has a first-class degree from Bretton Hall (University of Leeds), a college set in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, specially designed to foster creativity in all of the Arts, and where she studied Art History and Fashion & Textiles. She then went on to complete a postgraduate course at Cranfield School of Management (Cranfield University) where she studied Business and Marketing and business start-up. After this, she established a design business specialising in luxury lingerie and nightwear, which she ran for some years, whilst also working as a freelance designer for textile companies and lingerie brands.

Gill has an MA in Design Management and has taught Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing, Fashion Business, Design Management and Cultural and Contextual studies in different universities including the London College of Fashion, where she combined part-time lecturing with her work as a freelance designer for some years.

Having been lured into academic management, Gill has been involved in creating exciting new degrees, establishing programmes in Paris and Florence, sponsored projects, and other initiatives that have enhanced the education of many students. She has also held roles concerned within quality management and enhancement. She believes in a form of higher education that achieves a balance between academic stimulation and career-related skills, and which prepare students for careers in today’s challenging and dynamic working environments. 

Gill’s field of research is fashion and in particular fashion history, the catwalk show and lingerie and corsetry. Her book The Fashion Show: History, Theory and Practice is widely used internationally by students and academics as well as by professionals. She is currently working on further publications, including a book about 1950s/1960s fashion in London.

Qualifications

• MA Design and Manufacture
• Cranfield School of Management Graduate Enterprise Programme
• BA (Hons) Art and Design

Relevant Past Employment

• 2012 – 2013, Dean of Fashion and Interim Director of Education, AIU London
• 2001 – 2013, Dean of Fashion and Associate Professor, AIU London
• 1986 – 2001, Lingerie and Nightwear Designer
• 1986 – 2003, Freelance Designer
• 1997 - 2001, Assistant Dean of Fashion, AIU London
• 1995 - 1998, Visiting lecturer De Montfort University, Leicester
• 1991 – 1993, Senior Lecturer, London College of Fashion
• 1998 – 1995, Visiting Lecturer at various universities
• - 1983, Worked for a variety of organisations including international art gallery, college of art and design, chartered surveyors and architects.

Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy.

Gill Stark, Head of the School of Creative and Liberal Arts, took up her current post in June 2016. Her previous post was as Head of Regent’s School of Fashion & Design. Formerly she had worked as Dean of Fashion and Interim Director of Education at AIU London and at other universities, including the London College of Fashion, De Montfort University, Loughborough University and the University of Northampton.