University of Westminster names new Professor of Fashion Design

The University of Westminster has named Professor Andrew Groves as Professor of Fashion Design.

Groves, who has been the driving the direction of fashion education at Westminster for the last 15 years has been credited by the educational institute as leading a “radical rethink” of how fashion education is delivered to transform fashion education both at the University of Westminster and globally.

University of Westminster vice-chancellor, Dr Peter Bonfield said in a press statement: “We, at the University of Westminster, share in the great pleasure of the new appointment of Andrew as Professor of Fashion Design. His appointment is tremendously well merited and is built on his distinctive and significant contribution to this topic area.”

In 2016, he developed the MA Menswear programme, the world’s first and only two-year menswear course which showed their first graduating cohort at London Fashion Week Mens in June 2018, and this year, he aligned the BA Fashion Design course with the international fashion calendar which meant that the course became the first undergraduate course in the world to be invited to show on the official London Fashion Week schedule.

In addition to educational achievements, Groves also launched the Westminster Menswear Archive, the world’s only publicly accessible menswear archive in 2015, which has over 1500 examples of menswear from British designers and brands including Craig Green, Liam Hodges, Kim Jones, Aitor Throup, Vivienne Westwood, Mr Fish, Belstaff, Barbour, Burberry, Vexed Generation, and Aquascutum.

The archive has become an inspirational resource for education and for brand researchers, and visitors include students from the Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins, Kingston University, London College of Fashion, as well as industry visitors including Liam Hodges, Rapha, Versace, Hunter, Matthew Miller, Perry Ellis, Jigsaw, Alexander McQueen, H&M, British Fashion Council, The Financial Times, Esquire and Vogue.

Commenting on his new role, Groves said: “I am both thrilled and honoured to have been awarded the title of Professor of Fashion Design at the University of Westminster. I hope that in this new role, I can to further champion the importance of critical, creative and skills-based fashion education that ensures we continue to produce the most exciting and radical designers of the future and set the agenda for the fashion industry internationally.”

Groves also sits on the steering committee of the Colleges Council, which advises the British Fashion Council on education issues.