Seher Mirza

Seher Mirza is a design practitioner, researcher, and facilitator based in London, UK. She was awarded her PhD in textiles from the Royal College of Art in 2020. Mirza has an MA in Ethical Fashion from UCA and a BA (Hons) in Textile Design (weave) from Central Saint Martins UAL. She is a member of the Art Workers Guild (AWG) in Bloomsbury, London and part of its Outreach Committee.

Mirza has extensive experience, of over 10 years, working at grass roots level craft development having worked with Rural Support Programs Network (RSPN) and the Commonwealth Secretariat UK, and directly with rural craft communities. In 2011 she founded S jo a social business initiated alongside her PhD through her Threads of the Indus project in rural Sindh, Pakistan. The premise of this work is critical reflection and mutual learning. The successful high-end collections of fashion accessories made collaboratively with craft communities have been sold at the Victoria and Albert museum in London and the Whitworth Art gallery in Manchester among other retailers. The collaborative textiles have been shown publicly in the UK in a solo research exhibition at the RCA and in Re-envisioning John Frederick Lewis – Interpretations in craft and architecture at the AWG. Mirza has also led workshops with marginalized communities in London for East London Textile Arts (ELTA). Her research interests include power and privilege in making practices where social, material and design contexts meet.

She has published in Text journal and at the 32nd Textile Society Conference, Textiles, Communications and Politics in London, UK. Her upcoming publications include ‘Power Signifiers: new strategies for critically reflective design interactions’ as a panelist in Addressing Design for Sustainability: Pedagogy and Practice at the CAA (College Art Association of America) Annual Conference 2021 and her chapter ‘Narratives of Craft and Power in Sindh, Pakistan’ in Morcom and Raina (eds), Creative Economies of Culture in South Asia: Craftspeople and Performers (London: Routledge, [forthcoming]).