Emma Rigby

Emma Rigby is an academic and researcher in fashion sustainability at the University of the West of England's School of Arts. She has held roles including Senior Lecturer, Course Leader, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, contributing to research on garment lifecycles, laundry practices, and the intersection of motherhood with sustainability.

• PhD, MA, BA (Hons) in Fashion

Her research focuses on environmental impacts of clothing use, circular fashion, and how social practices shape sustainable design. She has collaborated on projects like The Laundry Pile and Lila Launderette, engaging public audiences through exhibitions at London Design Festival and Arnolfini.

She has authored peer-reviewed articles in Fashion Practice and Utopian Studies, and her work is cited in key publications by Kate Fletcher, Lynda Grose, and Sandy Black. Emma co-founded the fair trade brand Here Today Here Tomorrow and has lectured internationally in Germany and Denmark.

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• Member, Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion

Her teaching spans sustainable design, fashion ethnography, and research methodology, with experience across undergraduate and postgraduate levels at institutions including London College of Fashion and Cardiff Metropolitan University.