Amy Twigger Holroyd

Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd is an Associate Professor of Fashion and Sustainability at the Nottingham School of Art & Design, Nottingham Trent University. Her work focuses on participatory research to explore post-growth fashion systems, emphasizing sustainable alternatives that align with ecological limits. She coordinates the Sustainable Transitions group within the Fashion & Textile Research Centre and leads the Fashion Fictions project, engaging over 5,000 participants globally to imagine and enact alternative fashion worlds.

Educated at Birmingham City University (PhD, 2013) and Leeds University (postdoc), she has held roles in academia and industry, including running the experimental knitwear label Keep & Share. Awards include the prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize (2024) and multiple AHRC grants for projects like Crafting the Commons and Stitching Together. She has authored/co-authored four books, including Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes (2017) and an upcoming Fashion Fictions: Imagining Sustainable Worlds.

Her research explores themes of commoning, participatory textile practices, and sustainable transitions. She supervises five PhD students and serves as treasurer of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion. Key collaborations include Atlas of the Future, Craftspace, and Friends of the Earth. Her work bridges theory and practice, with exhibitions such as Units of Possibility: The Reknit Revolution (2017) and installations like A Temporary Outpost of the Blue Fashion Commons.

Funding includes £252k from AHRC for Fashion Fictions and £39k from NTU’s Impact Accelerator. External roles include peer review for journals like Journal of Textile Design Research & Practice and examiner duties at London College of Fashion. Her teaching emphasizes critical design thinking and sustainability.