Dr Richard Sorger
Faculties, deparments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Fashion
- School of Design
Associate Professor and Course Leader MA Fashion
- Email:
- r.sorger@kingston.ac.uk
About
I have taught at various institutions including Middlesex University, London College of Fashion, Nottingham Trent and Central Saint Martins.
I completed my PhD in March 2023, and my practice-based research explores the notion of fashion embellishment, primarily the use of sequins, as a spatial and theoretical concept through its relationship with the body, fashion and dress.
I am the co-author of the third editions of Basics Fashion Design; Research and Design for Fashion and The Fundamentals of Fashion Design, both for Bloomsbury Publishing. The Fundamentals has been translated into six languages and has sold sixteen thousand plus copies worldwide.
Between 2006-2011, I designed and produced my eponymous fashion label of ready-to-wear womenswear, selling in the UK, Europe, North America and the Middle East. My work has been exhibited in various exhibitions worldwide: Dangerous and Divine - The Secret of the Snake, Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, Netherlands (April 2012 – October 2012); Couture Beside the Catwalk, Amsterdam Fashion Week (January 2012); Browns: 40 years of Fashion Innovation, London (March 2010); Telling Tales; Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (July – October 2009); Unbridaled- The Marriage of Tradition and Avant Garde, various venues worldwide (2008-2009).
I have been commissioned to produce work by Swarovski, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Andaz Hotel. The Victoria and Albert Museum acquired his The Garden of Eden Dress (Spring/Summer 2007) for its permanent fashion collection in 2009. He has collaborated with Meadham Kirchhoff (Autumn/Winter 2009), Manolo Blahnik (for Meadham Kirchhoff) and ASOS.
My work has been published in the following books: Isabella Blow, Rink, M. (Thames & Hudson, 2010); Basic Fashion Design: Textiles and Fashion, Udale, J. (AVA Books, 2008); Basic Fashion Design: Research and Design, Seivewright, S. (AVA Books, 2007, 2nd Edition 2012); Unbridaled- The Marriage of Tradition and Avant Garde, (Swarovski AG, 2007). And his work has featured in magazines and newspapers including Vogue UK, American Vogue, OK! Magazine, Grazia, i-D Magazine, The Sunday Times Style Magazine, The Independent, The Times, LA TIMES, Dazed Digital, Observer Magazine.
Qualifications
- PhD
- BA (Hons) Fashion First Class
Domains
My practice based PhD is concerned with what constitutes a fashion embellishment and how new materials, techniques and technologies can be used for fashion embellishment. I am developing theories about what it means to embellish a fabric, how it relates to the body and fashion, and linking this to my current practice. I am interested in Jacques Derrida's notions of supplementarity and grafts, Malcolm Barnard's theories of fashion as prosthesis, Joanne Entwistle's theories of the decorated body, and Edward T. Hall's notions of proxemics, and how they can apply to my subject specialism. My practical work draws together these theories and incorporates Kenneth Snelson's tensegrity technique as well as Naum Gabo's stereometric principle of sculpture.
Publications
Research and design for fashion
Sorger, Richard and Seivewright, Simon (2021). London, U.K.: (Bloomsbury Visual Arts)
The fundamentals of fashion design
Sorger, Richard and Udale, Jenny (2017). London, U.K.: (Bloomsbury Visual Arts)
Material INTO practice, practice ONTO body and OUT TO space : exploration of sequins as a spatial concept through a new embellishment technique
Sorger, Richard (2023), PhD thesis, University of the Arts London