Katrina Whitehead

Dr Katrina Whitehead is a Lecturer in Fashion Promotion and Creative Writing specialising in fashion communication, image-making and visual culture. Her practice-based research examines how photography, moving image and creative direction shape the production and communication of fashion narratives across editorial, advertising and digital contexts. Through this work, she explores how visual media constructs meaning around identity, gender and representation within contemporary fashion culture.

Her research is grounded in feminist frameworks, with a particular focus on the representation of women in visual culture. She investigates how images, fashion media and archival materials contribute to the construction of narratives surrounding visibility, marginalisation and cultural tropes.

A key strand of her work explores the relationship between fashion communication and archives. Using garments, photographs, archival materials and ephemera, she examines how historical sources can be reinterpreted through image-making and creative direction. This approach connects archival research with contemporary practices in fashion media, including editorial production and storytelling.

Dr Whitehead completed her PhD in Practice at the University of Huddersfield (2026). Her doctoral research, ‘Murder by the (Photobook): Picture-Perfect Victims and the Fetishisation of Femicide through Arts Practice’, examined the representation and fetishisation of women within true crime visual culture. Through an interdisciplinary exhibition combining bookmaking, photography, dress and archival materials, the project developed new methods for reconstructing and critically engaging with historical narratives through practice-based research.

Her work also engages with contemporary debates in fashion sustainability, particularly in relation to vintage fashion, reuse and second-hand material culture. She explores how archival garments and historical references can be repositioned within current fashion communication practices, encouraging more critical and reflective approaches to fashion production and consumption.

Originally educated in Fine Art at Bretton Hall College (University of Leeds), she later completed an MA in Printmaking at Bradford School of Art, specialising in photographic print processes and artists’ books. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and presented research at conferences including the Association for Art History and the Royal Photographic Society.

She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds professional affiliations with the British Institute of Professional Photography. She welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD researchers working across fashion communication, visual culture, photography, archives and bookmaking.

My research sits at the intersection of fashion communication, photography and visual culture, with a focus on how image-making operates within fashion editorial, advertising and digital contexts. I am particularly interested in how photography, moving image and creative direction function as tools for constructing and communicating fashion narratives.

A central strand of my work explores archives, visual materials and cultural memory. I use garments, photographs, magazines and ephemera as starting points for both historical enquiry and creative reconstruction, examining how overlooked or marginalised histories, particularly those relating to women, can be reinterpreted through contemporary image-making practices. Building on this work, I am exploring the portrayal of female spies within visual and material culture, examining representations across popular magazines and film.

I am also interested in fashion sustainability, particularly in relation to vintage dress, second-hand culture and practices of reuse. My research considers how archival materials and historical references can inform current approaches to fashion communication, supporting more critical and environmentally aware modes of production and representation.

My current research interests include:

• fashion communication and promotion
• Creative direction, fashion photography and moving image
• visual culture and fashion media
• archives, ephemera and cultural memory
• feminist and eco-feminist practices
• representations of women in visual culture
• fashion sustainability and second-hand/vintage practices
• editorial practices (magazines, photobooks and publishing)
• interdisciplinary exhibition curation