Meet AIU Faculty/Staff
Meet Dean Gill Stark: Helping to Fashion a Quality Fashion Education
Degrees:
- M.A., Design Management, De Montfort University
- B.A. (Hons), Art and Design (Fashion and Art History) University of Leeds, 1986
In the Classroom:
In addition to serving as Dean of the Fashion Programs, Prof. Stark has recently taught Fashion Show Production I and II.
Out of the Classroom:
Fashion at AIU is devoted to teaching students how to work as a fashion professional and ultimately gain employment in the fast moving fashion industries of the world. My team of fashion professionals and academic specialists are carefully chosen to reflect contemporary fashion and fast changing fashion issues. Many of our students have gone on to work with top fashion companies across the world.
I studied Fashion and Textiles and Art History at Bretton Hall College (Leeds University) which was a college set in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, specially designed to foster creativity in all of the Arts. I then went to the School of Management at Cranfield University as part of the Graduate Enterprise Programme to study Business and Marketing and to learn to set up and run my own business. My designer business specialised in luxury lingerie and nightwear and I also designed for large companies. I gained an MA in Design Management and have taught Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing, Fashion Business, Design Management, and Cultural and Contextual Studies in different colleges and universities.
I have been Dean of Fashion at AIU for the past six years and during that time I have seen it develop and grow in student numbers and in educational offering. We have created exciting new degrees, teach in Paris and New York, do sponsored projects, fashion shows, study trips, workshops, work experience, and internships, and have links with other fashion colleges and with fashion companies. I have taught courses across fashion design and fashion marketing and I believe in a form of higher education which achieves a balance between academic stimulation and career-related skills, which prepares students for careers in today's international fashion industry. Students of fashion at AIU can have a wonderful time studying in London and also experience the thrill of the cutting edge of the industry itself.
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