Phygital Fashion and Immersive Technologies
Research group coordinators: Dr Enshand Shang and Minji Seo
Projects
Shaping the Future of Fashion: A Research Companion
This research led book explores how fashion futures are already being imagined, negotiated and created across industry, education and society. Bringing together conceptual, empirical and practice-based perspectives, it examines four interconnected themes: innovation, ecosystems, education and values, to investigate how technology, circular systems, pedagogy, ethics and community practices are informing fashion today. The book offers critical insight alongside practical inspiration for educators, researchers, students and industry practitioners. Combining global perspectives with future focused reflection, it acts both as a snapshot of contemporary fashion research and as a catalyst for rethinking how fashion can create meaningful social, cultural and environmental change.
Project lead
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Project researchers
Dr Bethan Alexander, Dr Eve Lin, Dr Flavia Loscialpo and Dr Kelly Dearsley (Eds).
Boundaryless Retail: In-store Technologies Shaping Fashion Customer Experience Journeys
This project explores how young fashion consumers navigate increasingly blurred physical and digital retail environments through smartphones and in-store technologies (ISTs). Using observations and interviews, the research reveals two key shopping behaviours: planned purchasing driven by online research and inspiration-led browsing. Findings highlight the central role of personal devices in shaping seamless customer journeys across channels, while also exposing gaps between retailers’ intended uses of technology and consumers’ actual experiences. The project rethinks the role of ISTs in fashion retail, emphasising the need for intuitive, inclusive and human-centred phygital environments that balance digital convenience with social connection and meaningful customer experience.
Project lead
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Project researchers
Dr Bethan Alexander
Professor Emeritus Anthony Kent (Nottingham Trent University)
Dr Courtney Chrimes (University of Manchester)
Re-imagining fashion retailing and marketing in the epoch of sustainability and digitalization
Special issue guest editor: International Journal of Sustainable Fashion and Textiles
Guest edited by Dr Bethan Alexander and Professor Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas, this special issue emerged from a two-year collaborative process exploring fashion’s ongoing transformation. Bringing together seven interdisciplinary contributions spanning empirical research, conceptual development, pedagogy, case studies and industry insight, the issue critically examines how sustainability and digitalization are enacted, experienced and governed across fashion retail, marketing, consumer behaviour, education and regulation. The special issue centres the tensions, uneven progress and structural challenges shaping contemporary fashion systems, offering a multi-scalar perspective on how technology and sustainability are redefining the future of the industry.
Project lead
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Professor Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas (Ravensbourne University)
The Virtual You!
In collaboration with Holition and Dr Ana Javornik, The Virtual You! workshop investigated the intersection of digital and physical identity through creative practice. Using physical collaging as a research method, participants reflected on how they construct and express their virtual selves and explored the impact on digital identity and wellbeing. As brands increasingly operate in virtual spaces, the workshop fostered critical dialogue and exemplified research-informed teaching, culminating in the publication The Virtual You: Exploring Mental Wellbeing through Online Representation.
Project team
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Dr Nina Van Volkinburg (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Students from across the Fashion Business School’s Postgraduate courses
Immersive Spaces and Customer Experience
Scholarly research on immersive spaces is expanding, yet empirical studies, particularly in fashion and customer experiences, remain limited. This project advances the field by examining fashion metaverses, customer experiences, and the purchase journey. Key contributions include a paper presentation at the IFFTI 2024 Conference (EWHA University, Seoul), and publications in Psychology & Marketing on immersive spaces in customer experience and in the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management on metaverse retailing and the customer journey.
Project lead
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Project Researchers
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Dr Marta Blazquez (University of Manchester)
Dr Courtney Chrimes (University of Manchester)
Dr Rosy Boardman (University of Manchester)
Digital Fashion
This project explores the rapidly evolving landscape of digital fashion. An Op-Ed in The Interline, “Fashion’s Swiss Army Knife: Making Your Digital Assets Work Harder,” clarifies the complex and often conflicting academic and industry perspectives, offering a clearer framework for understanding digital fashion’s potential. A second initiative, aimed at fashion scholars, proposes a unified definition of digital fashion and a research agenda to guide future empirical studies and support its continued evolution.
Project researchers
Karinna Grant (educator, innovator and entrepreneur)
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Retail Futures: Customer experience, Phygital retailing and Experiential Retail Territories
This research examines the evolving role of physical retail spaces and their impact on customer experience (CX). Building on existing retail CX literature, it explores the effects of rapid change on physical stores and the future of CX management in integrated physical-digital fashion retail. Through qualitative exploratory research with industry experts via semi-structured interviews, the study uncovers key insights on phygital retail and CX evolution. It also introduces the Experiential Retail Territories (ERT) framework, offering a new perspective on the future of fashion retailing.
Project lead
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Project researchers
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Rosemary Varley (London College of fashion, UAL)
XR Technologies in Digital Fashion
As digital fashion (DF) and immersive technologies (IT) evolve, retailers seek innovative ways to enhance user experiences. However, existing research remains fragmented, lacking an integrated approach to IT stimuli, user responses, methodological innovation, and contextual breadth. This collaborative research project addresses these gaps using the Stimulus-Organism-Response model to examine factors shaping Generation Z’s interactions, responses, and experiential outcomes across various DF and IT applications. Conducted in partnership with LCF’s Fashion Innovation Agency and M-XR, a leader in 3D scanning for digital fabrics, the study utilised bespoke digital assets and environments to explore these dynamics.
Project lead
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Project researchers
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Dr Nina Van Volkinburg (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Digital Fashion in Practice: Applications and Longevity Workshop
This Research and Knowledge Exchange collaborative project between London College of Fashion and Winchester School of Art, culminated in a workshop to explore Digital fashion in practice with various stakeholders including academics and practitioners researching and working in the field of digital fashion. Four key topics were discussed: producing digital fashion, using digital fashion, engaging audiences and educating for the future. Outcomes from this interaction will lead to a provocation paper and research agenda to inform future projects.
Project lead
Project researchers
Dr Nina Van Volkinburg (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Alice Janssens (University of Southampton)
Customer Experience in Fashion Retailing: Merging Theory and Practice
Dr Bethan Alexander’s research interest on places and spaces that people experience including online, offline and phygitally, converge in the publication of her first book, ‘Customer Experience in Fashion Retailing: Merging Theory and Practice’. Merging three core perspectives – academic, creative agency and retailer - the book takes a chronological approach to tracing the evolution of customer experience from the physical store, to omnichannel through channel convergence to consider the future of fashion retailing and customer experience. Beginning with the theoretical perspective, customer experience evolution in a fashion retail context is traced, considering the definition of customer experience, physical retail, the digitalisation of customer experience, omni-channel retail, in-store technologies and envisioning future retail CX.
Project lead
Blockchain in Marketing: Crypto’s, NFT’s, Metaverse and the New Marketing Revolution Workshop
This collaborative project brought together academics from various UK Universities to conceive and develop a workshop on technologies and marketing that was facilitated at the Academy of Marketing Conference in 2023. Networks were established and cultivated to pave the way for progressive research in this dynamic field.
Project researchers
Dr Bethan Alexander (London College of Fashion, UAL)
Dr Chrysostomos Apostolidis (Durham University)
Dr Marta Blazquez Cano (University of Manchester)
Dr Abdul Jabbar (Leicester University)
Dr Nora Alomar (Durham University)
Dr. Rosy Boardman (University of Manchester)
Dr Courtney Chrimes (Manchester Metropolitan University)