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Educated at the Royal College of Art in MA Fashion Design, Caroline has taught across many aspects of the fashion programme both in a full and part time capacity; presently focused on teaching level 6 students life drawing for fashion, conceptual design development, final collection and industry live projects.
Caroline’s fashion experience is within womenswear design, trend and illustration. She is an award-winning practicing fashion artist with gallery representation in Chicago USA, exhibiting and selling her work regularly.
Her practice-based research explores a mixed media methodology routed in art school life drawing principles. Caroline has a passion for drawing historical fashion with a particular interest in the work of Christian Dior and Cristóbal Balenciaga between 1955-1965.
A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) Caroline’s most recent academic research explores ‘The preservation of analogue drawing within fashion design education’.
Past published research has included curating the international peer reviewed exhibition and paper, ‘The Radical Decade’ This exhibition presented the work of the influential fashion designer Gerald McCann, the dynamic social, cultural and political changes in the 1960s and their impact on fashion.
Works on display acknowledged McCann’s impact on the British fashion industry and his design influence in New York.
In response to this exhibition Caroline presented her research at the first fashion symposium at Leeds Arts University. This was followed with a published academic paper, Gerald McCann: The rediscovery of a Fashion Designer, exploring further the impact of her research and how BA and MA students engaged with archives through her teaching.
The artist has exhibited a collection of drawings including her Alexander McQueen painting as part of a major fashion exhibition at the Bankfield Museum UK.
Recently work was selected for the Fida worldwide curated exhibitions ‘With Love Halston’ the National Arts Club, New York City (2022) and ‘The Nando and Elsa Peretti foundation’ Art Basel Miami (2022)
Accolades
Award winner, Fida 6th Awards, 2022
Commended artist, Fida 7th Awards, 2023
Finalist Fida, 4th Awards, 2021
Publications
The Fible Part 3, The Fashion Illustration Bible
The Fible Part 2, The Fashion Illustration Bible
Almond, K. and Riches, C. (2018) ‘Gerald McCann: the rediscovery of a fashion designer’, The Journal of the Costume Society, 52 (1), pp. 97-122.
LFW E-Magazine 2021: A collection of drawings for London Fashion Week.
LFW E-Magazine 2022: A collection of drawings for London Fashion Week.
Exhibitions
(2023) Fida Summer exhibition
(2023) The Cutting Table, Leeds Arts University
(2022) C/OVERT Observations. Virgil Catherine Gallery in Illinois, USA. March 1 - April 2022.
(2021) The intersection of Art and Fashion. Virgil Catherine Gallery in Illinois, USA. August 17 - September 17 2021.
(2021) BELONGING Fashion & a Sense of Place. Bankfield Museum. Halifax. September 18 2021 - March 2022.
(2021) Fidarts Fashion Illustration Virtual Art Fair. October 13 - 31 December 2021.
(2020) Elsa Peret. Art Basel Miami
Riches, C. (2016) The Radical Decade, Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds Arts University. 7 October – 16 December 2016.
Symposium
(2021) Visual Tactility. Drawing discussion (Fida worldwide)
(2016) The Radical Decade Research Symposium, Leeds Arts University, 9 December 2023