Alexandra Sherlock
Academic research and reflections - fashion, footwear and materiality.
What Kamala Harris’ Converse All-Stars tell us about how shoes shape our identity
Not only do shoes affect how we move through the world physically, but they also shape how we relate to others socially. In this article for The Conversation I use Kamala Harris’ Converse All-Stars to explore how shoes shape our identity and sense of self.
Out of Step: Why Sneakers and Sportswear Still Lag on Sustainability
Have you ever wondered what becomes of your old sports shoes? In this article for newswire publisher 360info, Dr Rebecca Van Amber and I examine some of the current sustainability challenges facing the sports and athleisure apparel market.
Book review - Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks
As the Bata Shoe Museum’s exhibition Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting Edge Kicks comes to an end, I review Senior Curator Elizabeth Semmelhack’s important exhibition publication for the Footwear Research Network.
Sneaker Deconstruction as Project-Based Learning
How can sneakers be used to teach high school students about the environmental impacts of fashion and footwear production? This project with students from Melbourne’s St Columba’s College provided an opportunity to find out.
Article for THE Campus: Indigenous knowledge provides skills for lifelong learning that AI cannot
How can Indigenous Knowledge systems assist educators in addressing the climate emergency, decolonisation and balance the outsourcing of knowledge to AI?
8th Street Samba: here’s why the authentic collaboration behind the ‘perfect sneaker’ matters
As the fashion industry strives towards a more circular and sustainable future, Professor Andrew Groves and I explored the pros and cons of sneaker collaborations for The Conversation.
Weaving and Healing: Finding My Place in the Decolonising Narrative
As the higher education sector responds to increasing calls to decolonise the curriculum, how do we, as educators, identify and reflect on our own motivations and capacities to make change? This article reflects on my personal journey as a white British female academic living and working in Australia. All opinions my own.
This is Not a Shoe
How can old shoes be used to effect a shift from a traditional ‘design-led’ to a circular ‘material-driven’ approach to design? In this article for the Footwear Research Network, I presented research at RMIT University that used shoes to explore the transferable knowledge and capabilities that can be developed through material reuse and upcycling in design education.
trippen x RMIT: Material-Driven Design Collaboration
In 2020, students of RMIT’s School of Fashion and Textiles teamed up with German footwear manufacturer Trippen to find accessory solutions for leather waste materials. The collaboration was part of research to develop material-driven design processes in education.
Steve Jobs’ $220,000 Birkenstocks
Following the recent auction of Steve Jobs’ Birkenstock Sandals, this article for the Footwear Research Network explores the value of celebrity shoes in life and death.
Review: The Futures Archive - ‘The Shoe’ (S1/E10)
In this review for the Footwear Research Network I discuss the Design Observer’s Futures Archive podcast on ‘The Shoe’. The podcast featured insights from presenter Lee Moreau, Garnette Cadogan, Kevin Bethune, Elizabeth Semmelhack and myself to consider how we assign meaning to shoes.
Book Review: Worn: Footwear, Attachment and the Affects of Wear, by Ellen Sampson
It was my pleasure recently to review Ellen Sampson’s book ‘Worn: Footwear, Attachment and the Affects of Wear’ for Fashion Theory.
Read my original manuscript here.
The Rise of the Slipper
Wearing slippers while working from home? What might these very private and intimate forms of footwear tell us about ourselves?
Conference Paper: Fashion, Consumption and Cultural Exchange
Paper delivered at the AAANZ Conference Ngā Tūtaki – Encounter/s: Agency, Embodiment, Exchange, Ecologies, 3-6 December, 2019 at The University of Auckland.
‘Getting the shoes on the right feet’: Endorsement, Affect and Identification
Conference paper delivered at The End of Fashion conference: Massey University 7th-10th December 2016
Shoe-watching on Carnaby Street
Carnaby Street: perhaps London's most famous shoe-shopping location. Filmed during a lunch hour this seven and a half minute video observes the shoes of those passing through the popular location.
'It's kind of where the shoe gets you to I suppose': Materializing Identity with Footwear
Open source article in the ‘Materiality’ issue of Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, edited by Sophie Woodward and Tom Fisher, published by Intellect.
A Week in Mary Beard's Shoes
“Beard’s account, rather than fortifying a simplistic, even at times misogynist association of women with shoes, actually helps to deconstruct and de-mystify shoes as symbols of oppression.”
Conference Paper: ‘Here’s Looking at Shoes’
Exploring the relationships between popular representations and embodied experiences of shoes. Paper delivered at the Fourth International Conference on the Image, University Center Chicago, 18th -19th October 2013.