More members of the Winchester Luxury Research Group.
Click here for Directors and Members A-L.
Members
Molly Mills
Molly K Mills is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Pathway leader for MA Fashion Management at the Winchester School of Art, Southampton University. She joined the university after twenty years of experience working as a fashion designer and design manager in the Fashion Industry.
After graduating from Kingston University, Molly set up and ran her own luxury label and boutique "Molly K" which was located in the fashionable Notting Hill Gate area of London. She then worked as a Senior Women's Designer for Full Circle for a number of years, and most recently as a Senior Women's Design Manager at Fat Face.
From a research perspective, she is interested in the implications of integrating sustainability, ethical production and design, into the DNA of a Luxury brand and its identity.
Linda Newington
Linda is Head of Library and Archive Collections for Art and Design at Winchester School of Art, which is a specialist art and design library. In 2007 she completed an MA in the History of Textiles and Dress with the Textile Conservation Centre. Her dissertation focused on the image and status of knitting in relation to the Knitting Collections held by the University Library.
Linda is the founder of In the loop, a series of four international, interdisciplinary conferences on knitting held since 2008. The conferences have been the spring board for cutting-edge research on knitting with contributions from academics, archivists, designers, knitters, librarians, students and WSA alumni worldwide.
A selection of papers from In the loop 3: the voices of knitting held at the Winchester Discovery Centre in 2010 have recently been published in a special edition of Textile: journal of cloth and culture, (Vol. 12, No. 1, 2014), selected and edited by Jonathan Faiers. Linda recently curated the exhibition Knitting 1914-2014 held in the Special Collections Gallery at the main University Campus and co-organised the related Study Days (2-3 April 2014).
An interest in the politics of knitting from the domestic and hand knitted of home to the high fashion and hand embellished located in costs and recognition for previously anonymous knitters has recently emerged, raising questions about the luxury of time, the luxury of yarn, and the luxury of designer knitwear.
Debbie Pinder
Debbie is the Pathway Leader and Senior Teaching Fellow on the MA Luxury Brand Management Pathway. With a long career working with leading global luxury brands, Debbie has held senior positions, including head of marketing, creative and visual merchandising.
Debbie is undertaking doctoral research at WSA concerning luxury brand identity in the airport. Focused on brand identity, global consumer behaviour, the consumer experience and the airport presence of luxury brands, the aim of this research is to understand the airport environment and luxury consumer behaviour, in order to appreciate how luxury brands can optimize retail sales in the airport context. Debbie is also interested in luxury digital media and the online presence of luxury brands.
Additionally, Debbie has her own luxury brand consultancy business, and works with luxury brands on strategy, helping companies achieve optimum brand equity through brand identity, market positioning and the luxury brand experience.
Dr Ashok Ranchhod
Ashok was initially involved in the development of the MA Luxury Brand Management degree and has an interest in brand development, digital marketing communications and the use of advergaming in advertising. He is coauthor with Calin Gurau of Marketing Strategies: A Contemporary Approach (FT Pearson). Ashok has written papers on Luxury Brand Consumer Behavior in China and India. As Director of MICA in India, he wrote a paper on Bollywood celebrity endorsement of Luxury Brands.
Ashok currently supervises three PhD students in the area of Luxury Brand consumption and behavior in China. Currently, his primary interest is the role of gaming and new technologies in enhancing the reach and consumption of Luxury Brands. Research or PhD enquiries in this area are welcome.
Dr Yasmin Sekhon
Yasmin gained her doctorate at the University of Birmingham. Her areas of research include the consumption patterns of first and second-generation immigrants, the consumption of luxury brands, the meaning and significance of luxury across cultures as well as the study of materialism in cross-cultural settings. She has published in a number of academic journals including Consumption, Markets and Culture Journal, Academy of Marketing Review, Non- profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and International Journal of Market Research.
Yasmin is also on the editorial board of the International Journal of Market Research. She has been invited to give talks at a number of universities both nationally and internationally. Currently Yasmin is investigating the role of luxury clothing in personal and social identity formation.
Leanne Wierzba
Leanne Wierzba is a design historian and curator. Her interest in luxury draws both from her research into twentieth century fashion and the development of mass luxury in the post-WWII context, as well as from hands on experience as a fashion designer gained working with notable brands in Vienna, New York, Paris and London.
In her current post as Research Fellow Winchester School of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum, she is working toward an exhibition, in partnership with the Crafts Council, which will explore the dynamic parameters of luxury within material culture and address the role that skills-based design practices play in its iteration and critique. Her writing on fashion has been published internationally and she currently serves as exhibition and publications review editor for Luxury: History, Culture, Consumption.
Sharon Wu
Sharon is a Teaching Fellow in Fashion Management & Fashion Marketing and Branding who focuses on luxury related subject areas, such as consumer behaviour, electronic word of mouth (eWoM), and quantitative research methods. Her most recent book chapter is 'Luxury Marketing: luxury brand in the Digital Age'. Her current research projects include the use of digital luxury as a tool for research that will enable the promotion of useful insight to both academics and businesses and exploring eWoM in the consumer purchase decision-making process.
Sharon is a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway, University of London researching the variables affecting the purchase of luxury goods. She is a member and reviewer of the Academy of Marketing . Her works have appeared in the proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Annual Conference, the Collougue Luxe et Contrefacon and the Monaco Symposium on Luxury.
Dr Yuanyuan Yin
Yuanyuan is a Lecturer and Pathway Leader for MA Design Management at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. She joined University of Southampton in 2009 after completing her PhD in Design Management and MA in Design Strategy & Innovation at Brunel University, UK.
Her research has been concentrated on promoting business performance through developing design and brand strategies, understanding customers and users, supporting design collaboration, and improving innovation in product design. She is interested in luxury branding strategy, cross-culture consumer behavior, and experience with luxury goods and luxury product design.