Dr Katherine (Katie) Appleford joined King's in 2025, having previously held positions at the University for the Creative Arts, Kingston University London, and the London College of Fashion, University for the Arts London.

Her research interests focus on the way fashion is used to construct and communicate social identity, and how consumption practices are shaped by gender, race and class.

Her published research analyses the ways social class is mobilised through contemporary fashion practices, consumption and tastes, demonstrating the ways in which class shapes understandings and performance in respect of gender, space and mothering. She has also examined young women’s shifting attitudes around body image and beauty ideals, and the role of celebrity and social media in cultivating new body image standards and notions of respectability. In doing so, her work critically considers important intersections between fashion, the body, gender and race and religion and celebrity culture.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• The sociology of fashion
• Consumer culture and identity
• ClassGender
• Body Image
• Celebrity Culture
• Motherhood

Katherine's research interests centre primarily on gender, class fashion and consumption and within these areas she has considered racialised performances of beauty and body image, notions of good mothering, fashion habitus and class and impression management. She has supervised doctoral research which explores: how those who identify as non-binary negotiate everyday fashion choices and use fashion their construction and performance of gender; how fashion design mobilises cultural understandings and expectations of masculinity; the relationships between types of housing, class stigma and belonging.

Teaching

Katherine has designed and lead modules across levels 3 to 7 which examine the consumer culture, fashion and identity, fashion innovation and fashion business management, gender, the body and its social intersections.

Expertise and public engagement

Katherine has discussed her research on BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed programme, and her work has featured on Resonance FM's Paperweight series too. She also contributed to BBC Three's Dangerous Curves Documentary, and has featured in several articles in The Stylist magazine. She has consulted on a range of issues for Cultural Insight and Marketing Research agencies, offering insights for 'expert' panel discussions.

Selected publications

• Appleford, Katherine (2021) Classifying fashion, fashioning class: making sense of women's practices, perceptions and tastes. London, U.K.: Routledge. 222p. (Routledge Advances in Sociology) ISBN9780415784122
• Appleford, K., Rajina, F., & Sharma, S. (2025). Young Muslim women on Nadiya Hussain, turbanisation and the politics of respectability: Navigating public space and Islamophobia. The Sociological Review, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261251324386
• Appleford, Katherine (2016) "This big bum thing has taken over the world": considering Blackwomen'schanging view on body image and the role of celebrity. Critical Studies in Fashion and Beauty,7(2), pp. 193-214. ISSN (print) 2040-4417 https://doi.org/10.1386/csfb.7.2.193_1
• Appleford, Katherine (2016) Being seen in your pyjamas : the relationship between fashion, class,gender and space. Gender, Place & Culture, 23(2), pp. 162-180. ISSN (print) 0966-369X https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2015.101343