Harriette Richards

Dr. Harriette Richards is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University, Melbourne. She co-founded the Critical Fashion Studies research group and co-hosts the Critical Fashion Studies Podcast. Her work focuses on ethical/sustainable fashion systems, consumer culture, and fashion in settler colonial contexts. Currently, she is researching the impacts of settler colonialism on fashion cultures in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Research Interests: Critical Fashion Studies, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Ethical/Sustainable Fashion, Settler Colonial Studies. These areas are explored through interdisciplinary lenses, blending theory with practical applications in fashion systems and cultural analysis.

Advising & Projects: Supervised projects include Fashion localism: Centring values for regenerating nature and community wellbeing (2023) and Suffragette Militancy: The Everyday Operations of the Women’s Social and Political Union (1903–1914) (2022). Her work emphasizes community-focused and decolonial approaches to fashion studies.

Labs/Teams: Active in the Critical Fashion Studies research collective and podcast, fostering dialogue between academia and broader publics.