A trained cultural historian and artist who uses academic writing and visual art practice to address issues in fashion. The discourse of cultural identities in the production of fashion and the cultural property of fashion are common themes in her work. Author of Fusionable Cheongsam (2007), she has written widely on the socio-cultural revolution of the Chinese dress, through which she has dissected the material culture in China.
Current projects include an edited volume on Making Fashion in Multiple Chinas: Chinese Styles in the Transglobal Landscape (2017, IB Tauris), a guest issue on ‘Hyper-Text)(ile)s: Transnational Networks in Fashion Exchange’ in Textile The Journal of Cloth and Cultures, and a special issue on Inter-East Asian Fashion Production for the journal Visual Anthropology. A Reader in Fashion Practice at Northumbria University and a practicing visual artist, she uses text, audio and installations to address the soft power of fashion. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Hong Kong.