Dr. Kelly Reddy-Best

Research Interests & Areas

I examine how fashion products, management, and media are produced, distributed, consumed, regulated, and represented with a philosophical perspective that centers justice. Questions that have shaped my scholarship include: How and why have niche consumer markets targeting marginalized communities emerged, and what influences their existence and processes? How do fashion brands engage in justice-related work while operating in a capitalist economic system? How and why have historically marginalized or environmentally just consumers engaged in product and media consumption practices in the formal and informal economies? How does media or other cultural contexts produce and regulate fashions, styles, and dress narratives, particularly for those in historically marginalized communities? How are fashions, styles, and dress regulated via written or unwritten rules in various contexts? Outcomes for my research have implications for fashion brands to improve consumer and everyday lived experiences. In addition, these brands, and fashion media more generally, impact society at large, and I seek to understand how historically marginalized communities engage with, experience, and are affected by the fashion system in past, present, and future contexts.