Cheryl Buckley

Cheryl Buckley (born 1956) is a British design historian whose research has focused on feminist approaches to design history. She has published on British ceramic design and fashion. Her works include the influential article "Made in Patriarchy: Toward a Feminist Analysis of Women and Design" and the books Potters and Paintresses (1990) and Designing Modern Britain (2007). She was professor of fashion and design history at the University of Brighton from 2013 to 2021, and was previously professor of design history at Northumbria University. In 2021, she was made Professor Emerita at the University of Brighton.

Education and career Buckley attended the University of East Anglia, gaining a degree in history of art and architecture (1977). She received a master's degree in design history from Newcastle University (1982). She returned to the University of East Anglia for her PhD in design history, awarded in 1991. In 2017, she and Jeremy Aynsley established the Centre for Design History at Brighton.

Research and writings Buckley states her current research interests as gender and design, and has been described as a feminist design historian. In the article, described as "seminal" by Victor Margolin and "ground-breaking" by Grace Lees-Maffei, Buckley teases out design contributions made by women, and suggests that craft arts have been ignored in the study of design history.

In her first book, Potters and Paintresses: Women Designers in the Pottery Industry, 1870–1955 (1990), Buckley discusses the participation of women in ceramic design during this period.

In Fashioning the Feminine: Representation and Women's Fashion from the Fin de Siècle to the Present (2002), Buckley and co-author Hilary Fawcett review fashion in Britain from 1890, highlighting its interaction with both feminism and femininity as well as its "paradoxical" relationship with modernity. More recently, Buckley co-authored Fashion and Everyday Life: London and New York with Hazel Clark (2017).

In her second sole-authored book, Designing Modern Britain (2007), Buckley surveys British design between 1890 and 2001, broadly chronologically via numerous case studies. She employs a broad definition of design, which she considers "a matrix of interdependent practices", encompassing architecture, town planning, interior design, pottery, textiles, and fashion.

In 2025, Made in Patriarchy, Cheryl Buckley was published with a foreword by Bibiana Oliveira Serpa and edited by Nina Paim was published by Bikini Books.

Selected publications Books

Source:

Cheryl Buckley, Made in Patriarchy, Cheryl Buckley ,foreword by Bibiana Oliveira Serpa ,edited by Nina Paim, published by Bikini Books, 2025, ISBN 978-989-35859-2-4.

Research articles

Cheryl Buckley (2020), 'Made in Patriarchy II: Researching (or Re-searching) Women and Design', Design Issues, volume 36, number 1, Winter 2020, 19-29.https://doi.org/10.1162/desi_a_00572