NEW ATTITUDE: Designer Zowie Broach will succeed professor Wendy Dagworthy as the new head of fashion at the Royal College of Art in London. She will join the college at the start of the new academic year on Oct. 1.
Broach founded the British fashion house Boudicca with her creative partner Brian Kirkby in 1997. The label, which has always viewed fashion through an artistic lens, has shown in art galleries and other exhibition spaces, and won widespread international recognition.
Broach is a graduate of Plymouth and Middlesex universities, and spent 12 years as a fashion educator, teaching at both the B.A. and Master’s levels. She has taught at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, SAIC in Chicago, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and the RCA.
From 2009 to 2011, she was designer in residence at London College of Fashion, and was most recently a senior researcher in creative practice there.
“Her candidacy was…striking for its combination of practice at the boundaries of so many relevant fields — fashion, design, technology and visionary thinking; and of course, having developed and expanded Boudicca into a globally recognized brand…and for her strong links with industry,” said professor Judith Mottram, incoming dean of the School of Material.
Broach said she is eager to get started, and “to help shape the next generation of designers. I’m also excited about collaborating with colleagues from across the college to support the creation of new academic opportunities and the growth of material research — both within the RCA and with external partners.”
Boudicca has presented collections in London and New York, and became the first independent British fashion house to be invited as a guest member of the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in 2007.