THE podcast: social artist Helen Storey on working on the boundary of fashion and science

Listen to this podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

In this episode, we talk to social artist, designer and researcher Helen Storey about a career that has taken her from fashion runways to scientific collaborations to, most recently, refugee camps in the Middle East and Africa.

Storey is professor of fashion and science at the London College of Fashion in the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the University of the Arts London (UAL). In May, she donated her 30-year Helen Storey Foundation Archive of about 2,000 digital and physical pieces to UAL. In this interview, she discusses her journey – how she transitioned from award-winning commercial fashion designer to working with scientists on projects that, among other explorations, translate the first 1,000 hours of human life into textiles – and how she hopes the archive will benefit students.

Storey, who was awarded an MBE for Services to Arts in 2009, also shares insights from her humanitarian work. From creating Dress 4 our Time to becoming the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ first designer-in-residence, she explains how these experiences are now intertwined with her work at UAL.

The conversation covers what the arts and science bring to each other, the value of the tactile, and how art can be a conduit for people to connect with overwhelming issues such as climate change, plastics pollution and global displacement. 

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.