Profile
An award-winning designer, Fox has created numerous experimental and innovative clothing collections that were sold internationally, and during her career as a designer Fox was awarded the Crafts Council Development Award, The Jerwood Fashion Prize, the Peugeot Design Award for Textiles, the Stanley Picker Fellowship for Design, and was nominated by the Arts Council England for the Prince Philip Design Prize. During this time her work acquired extensive press coverage in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, International Herald Tribune, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, i-D magazine, Vogue, Time Out London, Purple, Tank, Nylon, The Face, Sleaze Nation, Dazed & Confused, Self Service, Creative Week and Wire magazine amongst many others.
Her work has been included in over 50 prestigious exhibitions across America, Australia, China, Europe, Israel, Japan, Russia and the UK, in notable venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Design Museum, Barbican Art Gallery, Crafts Council, ICA in London, Modemuseum in Antwerp, Museum at FIT and Grand Central Station in New York, International Library of Fashion Research in Oslo, Berlin Film Festival, Tokyo Design Museum, Design Museum Holon and many touring British Council exhibitions that have toured globally. Her work has been published in over 30 books and 15 exhibition catalogues broadly across fashion, design, and art journals, as well as academic publications.
Fox has appeared as a speaker at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and MOMI in New York, International Library of Fashion Research in Oslo, Barbican Art Gallery, ICA, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Hong Kong Design Centre and the World Cities Creative Forum in Shanghai. She has collaborated with Nobel Prize scientists, choreographers, film-makers, curators, architects, photographers, artists, communication designers, sound designers and writers. Key collaborations include choreographer Wayne McGregor of Random Dance, Medical Research Council UK, Michael Clark Dance Company, Ab Rogers Design, Tomato Design Agency, sound artist Scanner, photographer Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio and English Heritage Trust.
Selected for the Business of Fashion - #BOF | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry, the most influential and
authoritative list in the global fashion industry. https://www.businessoffashion.com/bof500/
Founding Director of the MFA Fashion Design and Society, Parsons School of Design, New York from 2008 – 2021
Tenured in 2012
Degrees Held
1994 –1996 Central Saint Martins, London MA FASHION DISTINCTION
1990 –1993 Central Saint Martins, London BA HONS TEXTILES 1ST CLASS HONOURS
Professional Affiliation
Member of the Directors Circle, International Fashion Research Library, Oslo, Norway
Senior Research Fellow at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London from 2000-2014.
Recent Publications
Recent Press
BRITISH ATTIRE - https://www.british-attire.com/thethread/we-like-your-look-shelley-fox, Published online October 2025
“Punk is Twee” Editorial, Cupboard Magazine, Published in April 2025
ODDA MAGAZINE - https://www.instagram.com/p/DA6mZSvyj-y/?hl=zh-cn&img_index=1, Published online October 2024
Writing Commission
Spring 2022 -Commissioned to write on the exhibition Ad Reinhardt, Color Out of Darkness, curated by James Turrell, Pace Gallery, New York.
Consultancy
2025– 2026 - Consultant for both the 2015 and 2026 Vilcek Prizes in Fashion and Design, The Vilcek Foundation, New York
https://vilcek.org
Performances and Appearances
Invited Conference Presentations / Talks
October 2025
Storage Unpacked: The Archive of Shelley Fox, Lore Archives, London Fields, Hackney, London
In this talk Shelley Fox examined the role of her own design archive, posing questions of why she kept it and what it could mean for her future work. It is an archive that has been stored across various geographies and travelled over time. ‘Ruination’ (a word borrowed from the essay ‘Fashion Stranger than Fiction; Shelley Fox’, by Caroline Evans) is key in describing what can be perceived as part of the Shelley Fox aesthetic, and through the unpacking of the archive has led to further ruination amidst an uninvited collaboration with mice; bringing forth new beginnings where time allows for a different perspective.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPMZWMMkaGu/?img_index=1
March 2025
Fashion Research Symposium 2025 'Creating Afterlives', International Library of Fashion Research, Oslo, Norway
The symposium is an annual event for research, knowledge-sharing and critical discourse around fashion. The theme for 2025 is “Creating Afterlives”. Fashion Research Symposium is an ongoing collaboration between the National Museum of Norway and International Library of Fashion Research. Fashion Research Symposium 2025 gathers Norwegian and international researchers, collectors and practitioners to explore ephemeral afterlives through alternative and critical archival practices in fashion.
Speakers include Carla Sozzani, Sissel Tolaas, Ina Blom, Rare Books Paris, Shelley Fox, Zaha Hadid Foundation, Marco Pecorari, Vassilis Zidianakis & Steffi Stouri (ATOPOS cvc), Milo Miller (Queer Zine Archive Project), Eli Rosenbloom, Vesma McQuillan, Jochen Eisenbrand, Diktats, Alexandra Bondi de Antoni & Kirsten Landwehr (Angelica Blechschmidt archive) and Edoardo Ferrari.
https://fashionresearchlibrary.com/program/fashion-research-symposium-2025-creating-afterlives
Moderator
House of McQueen, The Mansion, New York – September 2025
Moderated an intimate press evening for the House of McQueen play where Luke Newton (Lee McQueen), Emily Skinner (Joyce McQueen), producer Rick Lazes, playwright Darrah Cloud and director Sam Helfrich who shared stories from behind the scenes and the questions that drive the piece.
https://www.instagram.com/houseofmcqueenplay/
Research Interests
‘Storage Unpacked: The Archive of Shelley Fox’
‘the act of putting things somewhere especially for future use: the state of being stored’
The objective is to develop a ‘publication’ to house the existing content of the Shelley Fox archive. The visual structure will present different themes identified within the archive; design processes and themes that have reoccurred over the years – not intentionally but more subconsciously, and its only upon reflection there is an understanding that themes naturally come through and re-appear in collections as an evolutionary process. I want to design a project that poses a set of questions as to the value of the design archive, and its potential agency in contemporary practice: What questions can an archive prompt and how? How can an archive bring together further conversations and interpretations to the table? What new revelations, engagements, and perspectives can someone else bring to a living archive? What elements of the archive will spark further collaborative investigation? The new project that I am proposing intends to be an experimental blueprint through bringing together the components of the starting points of projects that went on to exist in the world in many various guises: clothing, performance, installations, films and exhibitions.
Having examined many of the original drawings, collages, documents and facsimiles gleaned from archives and research collections, I see them having new beginnings again - time has allowed for a different perspective. I never anticipated another life for the archive as I just compartmentalized it as a distant memory: boxes of stuff in various stages of transit. There is a desire for the publication to feel like you just ‘found it in a dumpster’ – as if salvaging something discarded but beautiful. I will personally work on building out this publication and undertake the role of art director and create the physical prototype ready for publishing.
Awards And Honors
AWARDS / GRANTS/ FELLOWSHIPS
2014 – Present Selected for the Business of Fashion - #BOF | The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry, the most influential and authoritative list in the global fashion industry.
2009 Funding for Workwear Exhibition was co-funded by PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN and the UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, LONDON through the FBMC RESEARCH GROUP.
November 2007 Nominated for the PRINCE PHILIP DESIGN PRIZE 2007 by the Arts Council, England
(Other nominees included Jonathan Ives, Ron Arad, David Gentleman, Robin Levien and David Chipperfield)
June 2007 Awarded further funding to realize the NOBEL TEXTILES project, Medical Research Council, UK, 10,000GBP
April 2007 Awarded seed funding for the development of the NOBEL TEXTILES Project, Medical Research Council, UK,
2000GBP (In collaboration with Nobel Scientist Sir Peter Mansfield - inventor of MRI)
May 2006 Awarded Individual Grant from the ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND for launch of Philadelphia Florist and
www.shelleyfox.com at The Stanley Picker Gallery in collaboration with Stanley Picker Fellowship, 4900GBP
June 2005 Awarded STANLEY PICKER FELLOWSHIP for Design, 10,000GBP
March 2005 Awarded Individual Grant from the ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND for Collection ‘Negative’ Presentation at the
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 5000GBP
December 2004 Awarded Sponsorship from the VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM to the worth of 5000GBP in Presentation
support, media, invites, William Morris Tile space, lighting for ‘Negative’ Collection for Friday Late
October 2004 Awarded Individual Grant from the ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND for development of the Collection ‘Negative’ Award - 7650GBP
March 2000 – 2014 Awarded RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP, Central St Martins College of Art & Design (now Senior Research Fellow)
June 1999 Awarded PEUGEOT DESIGN AWARD - Textiles Finalist Award, 1000GBP
February 1999 Awarded THE JERWOOD FASHION PRIZE - Worth 125,000GBP
June 1996 Awarded CRAFTS COUNCIL DEVELOPMENT AWARD, 7500GBP
January 1995 Awarded MARKS AND SPENCERS Scholarship - MA Fashion Program at Central Saint Martins, London - 4500GBP
June 1995 Awarded THE TEXTILES INSTITUTE Educational Grant - BA Textiles Program at Central Saint Martins, London - 1500GBP
Portfolio
Shelley Fox Official Instagram Account